„     .fir.  &  Mrs. 
Frederick  Lockwood  Lipman 


Presented  by 
Robert  L.  Lipman 


THE  RIVERSIDE  HISTORY 

OF  THE 

UNITED   STATES 


WILLIAM    E.    DODD,    EDITOR 


Copyright,  1891,  bj  M.  U.  Kice. 


EXPANSION  AND 
CONFLICT 


BY 
WILLIAM  E.   DODD 

PROFESSOR   OF   AMERICAN  HISTORY 
UNIVERSITY   OF   CHICAGO 


BOSTON   AND   NEW   YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

re^s  Cambridge 
1915 


COPYRIGHT,    1915,   BY  WILLIAM   E.   DODD 
ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 


PREFACE 

THE  purpose  of  this  volume  is  to  show  the  action 
and  reaction  of  the  most  important  social,  economic, 
political,  and  personal  forces  that  have  entered  into 
the  make-up  of  the  United  States  as  a  nation.  The1 
primary  assumption  of  the  author  is  that  the  people 
of  this  country  did  not  compose  a  nation  until  after 
the  close  of  the  Civil  War  in  1865.  Of  scarcely  less 
importance  is  the  fact  that  the  decisive  motive  be 
hind  the  different  groups  in  Congress  at  every  great 
crisis  of  the  period  under  discussion  was  sectional 
advantage  or  even  sectional  aggrandizement.  If  Web 
ster  ceased  to  be  a  particularist  after  1824  and  be 
came  a  nationalist  before  1830,  it  was  because  the 
interests  of  New  England  had  undergone  a  similar 
change;  or,  if  Calhoun  deserted  about  the  same 
time  the  cause  of  nationalism  and  became  the  most 
ardent  of  sectionalists,  it  was  also  because  the  in 
terests  of  his  constituents,  the  cotton  and  tobacco 
planters  of  the  South,  had  become  identified  with 
particularism,  that  is,  States  rights. 

And  corollary  to  these  assumptions  is  the  further 
fact  that  public  men  usually  determine  what  line  of 
procedure  is  best  for  their  constituents,  or  for  what 
are  supposed  to  be  the  interests  of  those  constituents, 
and  then  seek  for  "  powers  "  or  clauses  in  State  or 
Federal  Constitutions  which  justify  the  predeter 
mined  course.  This  being,  as  a  rule,  true,  the  busi- 

M895747 


vi  PREFACE 

ness  of  the  historian  is  to  understand  the  influences 
which  led  to  the  first,  not  the  second,  decision  of 
the  Representative  or  Senator  or  President  or  even 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court.  Hence  long-winded 
speeches  or  tortuous  decisions  of  courts  have  not 
been  studied  so  closely  as  the  statistics  of  the  cot 
ton  or  tobacco  crops,  the  reports  of  manufacturers, 
and  the  conditions  of  the  frontier,  which  determined 
more  of  the  votes  of  members  of  Congress  than  the 
most  eloquent  persuasion  of  great  orators. 

Thus  the  following  pages  utterly  fail  of  their  pur 
pose  if  they  do  not  picture  the  background  of  con 
gressional  and  sectional  conflicts  during  the  period 
from  Andrew  Jackson  to  Abraham  Lincoln.  But,  to 
be  sure,  in  so  brief  a  book  all  the  contributing  ele 
ments  of  the  growing  national  life  cannot  be  fully 
described  or  even  be  mentioned.  Still,  it  is  the  hope 
of  the  author  that  all  the  greater  subjects  have  been 
treated.  What  has  been  omitted  was  omitted  in  order 
to  devote  more  space  to  what  seemed  to  be  more  im 
portant,  not  in  order  to  suppress  what  some  may  con 
sider  to  be  of  primary  significance.  Three  hundred 
short  pages  for  the  story  of  the  great  conflict  which 
raged  from  1828  to  1865  do  not  offer  much  latitude 
for  explanations  and  diversions  along  the  way.  Nor 
is  it  possible  for  any  one  to  describe  this  conflict 
satisfactorily  even  to  all  historians,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  participants  who  still  live  and  entertain  the  most 
positive  and  contradictory  convictions.  Hence  one 
must  present  one's  own  narrative  and  be  content  if 
open-mindedness  and  honesty  of  purpose  be  acknowl 
edged. 


PREFACE  vii 

The  book  is  intended  for  the  maturer  students  in 
American  colleges  and  universities  and  for  readers 
who  may  be  desirous  of  knowing  why  things  hap 
pened  as  they  did  as  well  as  how  they  happened. 
And  by  the  employment  of  collateral  readings  sug- 
gested  in  the  short  bibliographies  at  the  close  of 
each  chapter,  both  the  college  student  and  the  more 
general  reader  may  find  his  way  through  the  laby 
rinth  of  conflicting  opinion  and  opposing  authorities 
which  make  up  the  body  of  our  written  history. 

To  make  this  task  easier  some  twenty-five  maps 
have  been  prepared  and  inserted  at  the  appropriate 
places  in  the  text.  These  maps,  perhaps  one  might 
say  photographs  of  social  or  economic  conditions, 
attempt  to  present  the  greater  sectional  and  indus 
trial  groups  of  "  interests  "  which  entered  into  the 
common  life  of  ante-bellum  times.  They  treat  party 
evolution,  economic  development,  and  social  antagon 
isms  in  a  way  which,  it  seems  to  the  author,  should 
help  the  reader  to  a  better  understanding  of  things 
than  would  be  possible  by  the  simple  narrative. 

For  permission  to  use  the  maps  on  pages  291, 
313,  and  327  the  author  expresses  his  thanks  to  the 
publishers  of  The  Encyclopedia  Americana. 

In  this  connection  cordial  thanks  are  extended  to 
Professor  J.  F.  Jameson  and  Dr.  C.  O.  Paullin,  of 
the  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington,  for  the 
privilege  of  using  the  data  which  they  collected  on 
the  election  of  1828  and  the  vote  in  Congress  on 
the  Tariff  of  1832.  Likewise  Mr.  P.  L.  Phillips, 
of  the  Division  of  Maps  of  the  Library  of  Congress, 
has  given  the  author  much  assistance.  Nor  must  I 


viii  PREFACE 

fail  to  say  that  many  of  my  students  have  rendered 
practical  aid  in  working  out  the  details  of  several  of 
the  maps.  Mr.  Edward  J.  Woodhouse,  of  Yale 
University,  very  kindly  read  all  the  proof  and  pre 
pared  the  index.  And  Professors  A.  C.  McLaugh- 
lin  and  M.  W.  Jernegan,  of  the  University  of 
Chicago ;  Allen  Johnson,  of  Yale ;  Carl  Becker,  of 
Kansas ;  and  Frederic  L.  Paxson,  of  Wisconsin, 
have  all  given  counsel  and  criticism  on  certain 
chapters  which  have  been  of  great  practical  benefit. 
But  in  making  these  acknowledgments  for  assist 
ance  rendered,  it  is  not  intended  to  shift  to  other 
shoulders  any  of  the  responsibility  for  statements  or 
manner  of  treatment  which  may  arouse  criticism. 
^The  book  is  intended  to  be  helpful,  interpretative, 
and  beyond  any  sectional  bias.  If  the  author  has 
not  been  successful,  it  is  not  the  fault  of  others,  nor 
because  of  any  sparing  of  personal  efforts. 

WILLIAM  E.  DODD. 


CONTENTS 

I.  ANDREW  JACKSON 1 

II.  THE  WEST 20 

III.  THE  EAST 39 

IV.  CONFLICT  AND  COMPROMISE 58 

V.  THE  TRIUMPH  OF  JACKSON    .       .       .       .       .77 

VI.  DISTRESS  AND  REACTION 96 

VII.  THE  MILITANT  SOUTH 114 

VIII.  WAR  AND  CONQUEST 147  v 

IX.  THE  ABOLITIONISTS 161 

X.  PROSPERITY 184 

XI.  AMERICAN  CULTURE 208 

XII.  STEPHEN  A.  DOUGLAS 231 

XIII.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 251 

XIV.  THE  APPEAL  TO  ARMS 268 

XV.  ONE  NATION  OR  Two? 289 

XVI.  THE  COLLAPSE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY       .      .  309 
INDEX  i 


MAPS 

THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION  OF  1828 

between  18  and  19 

DISTRIBUTION  OF  INDIANS  AND  LOCATION  OF  IN 
DIAN  LANDS  AND  UNORGANIZED  TERRITORY  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES  OR  THE  STATES  ....  26 

THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PLANTS  IN  1833    49 

THE  VOTE  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  ON 
THE  TARIFF  OF  1832  IN  EASTERN  AND  WESTERN 
STATES between  66  and  67 

GROWTH  OF  THE  WEST  AND  REMOVAL  OF  INDIANS 
FROM  COTTON,  TOBACCO,  AND  FIRST  WESTERN 
GRAIN  BELTS 88 

THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION   OF   1836 

between  92  and  93 

TOBACCO  AREAS  IN  1840 133 

COTTON  AREAS  IN  1840 134 

WHEAT  AREAS  IN  1840 139 

THE  PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION   OF   1844 

between  148  and  149 

ANNEXATIONS  OF  1845-53 159 

LOCATION  OF  ABOLITION  SOCIETIES  IN  1847       .      .169 

THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION  OF   1852 

between  180  and  181 


xii  MAPS 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  BELT  OF  1860 188 

RAILROADS  IN  OPERATION,  1850 190 

RAILROADS  IN  OPERATION,  1860 191 

THE  BLACK  BELT  OF  1860 193 

THE  COTTON  BELT  OF  1860 196 

TOBACCO  AREAS  IN  1860 197 

WHEAT  AREAS  IN  1860 200 

THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION  OF  1860 

between  264  and  265 
CONFLICTING   SECTIONAL  INTERESTS,    1850-60   .      .  237 

ONE  NATION  OR  Two? .291 

THE  CONFEDERACY  IN  1863 313 

REGIONS    WHICH    SURRENDERED    WITH    LEE     AND 
JOHNSTON,  APRIL,  1865     .      .    • 327 


EXPANSION  AND   CONFLICT 


EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

CHAPTER   I 

ANDREW    JACKSON 

"LET  the  people  rule" — such  was  the  reply  that 
Andrew  Jackson  made  to  the  coalition  of  Henry 
Clay  and  John  Quincy  Adams  which  made  the  lat 
ter  President.  And  Andrew  Jackson  was  an  inter 
esting  man  in  1825.  He  was  to  be  the  leader  of  the 
great  party  of  the  West  which  was  forming  for  the 
overthrow  of  the  old  political  and  social  order.  Born 
in  a  cabin  on  the  southern  frontier  in  1767  and 
reared  in  the  midst  of  poverty  during  the  "  hard 
times "  of  the  Revolution,  Jackson  had  had  little 
opportunity  to  acquire  the  education  and  polish 
which  so  distinguished  the  leaders  of  the  old  Jeffer- 
sonian  party.  After  a  season  of  teaching  school  and 
studying  law  in  Salisbury,  North  Carolina,  he  emi 
grated,  in  1788,  to  Tennessee,  where  he  soon  became 
a  successful  attorney,  and  a  few  years  later  a  United 
States  Senator.  But  public  life  in  Philadelphia 
proved  as  unattractive  as  school-teaching  had  been ; 
he  returned  to  the  frontier  life  of  his  adopted  State 
and  was  speedily  made  a  judge,  and  as  such  he  some 
times  led  posses  to  enforce  his  decrees.  During  the 
second  war  with  England  he  made  a  brilliant  cam 
paign  against  the  Creek  Indians,  who  had  sided 


2  EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

with  the  British,  and  gained  the  reputation  of  being 
the  mortal  enemy  of  the  aborigines,  a  reputation 
which  added  greatly  to  his  popularity  in  a  com 
munity  which  believed  that  the  "  only  good  Indian 
is  a  dead  Indian." 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  when  most  men  were  ex 
pecting  news  that  the  British  had  conquered  the 
lower  Mississippi  Valley  and  that  the  Union  was 
breaking  to  pieces,  he  proved  to  be  the  one  American 
general  who  could  "  whip  the  troops  who  had  beaten 
Napoleon."  The  battle  of  New  Orleans  made  Jack 
son  an  international  character,  and  the  West  was 
ready  to  crown  him  a  hero  and  a  savior  of  the  na 
tion.  Nor  did  his  arbitrary  conduct  in  the  Seminole 
War,  or  later,  when  he  was  Governor  of  Florida, 
injure  him  in  a  region  where  Indians,  Spaniards, 
and  Englishmen  had  few  rights  which  an  American 
need  respect.  The  attacks  of  Henry  Clay  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  arid  of  William  H.  Craw 
ford  in  the  Cabinet,  were  regarded  as  political  ma 
neuvers.  When,  therefore,  Jackson  offered  himself 
in  1823  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  most 
Western  men  welcomed  him,  fearing  only  that  his 
age  and  his  delicate  health,  of  which  he  had  said  too 
much  in  public,  might  cut  him  off  before  he  could 
render  his  country  the  great  service  of  which  they 
considered  him  capable.  The  politicians,  especially 
those  who  followed  Henry  Clay,  did  their  utmost  to 
defeat  him,  and  the  votes  of  the  West  were  divided 
almost  evenly  between  the  two  backwoods  rivals. 
But  when  it  became  clear  in  1825  that  Speaker 
Clay  of  the  House  of  Representatives  had  added  his 


ANDREW  JACKSON  3 

influence  to  that  of  John  Quincy  Adams  in  order  to 
prevent  Jackson  from  winning,  Western  men  every 
where  made  his  cause  their  cause.  "  Let  the  people 
rule  "  became  a  battle-cry  which  was  taken  up  in 
every  frontier  State  from  Georgia  to  Illinois. 

It  was  time  that  the  people  devoted  more  atten 
tion  to  public  affairs ;  they  had  in  fact  well-nigh 
abdicated.  In  Virginia,  with  a  white  population  of 
625,000,  only  15,000  had  voted  in  the  election  of 
1824;  in  Pennsylvania,  whose  population  was  over 
a  million,  only  some  47,000  had  taken  the  trouble 
to  go  to  the  polls ;  while  in  Massachusetts,  where 
the  "favorite  son"  motive  operated,  just  one  man  in 
nineteen  exercised  the  right  of  suffrage.  Govern 
ment  had  become  the  business  of  "  gentlemen  "  and 
of  those  who  made  a  specialty  of  politics.  The  old 
Jeffersonian  machine,  organized  as  a  popular  protest 
against  aristocracy  and  the  "  money  power,"  had 
itself  become  aristocratic,  and  it  had  ceased  to  rep 
resent  the  democracy  of  the  United  States ;  and  the 
democracy  had  lost  interest  in  its  own  affairs. 

When  Clay,  the  Westerner  and  long-time  oppo 
nent  of  Adams  and  the  New  England  element  in 
politics,  executed  his  surprising  somersault  in  Feb 
ruary,  1825,  and  thus  made  the  eastern  leader 
President  and  then  himself  became  Secretary  of 
State,  occasion  was  given  to  a  second  Jefferson  to 
arouse  the  people  to  a  sense  of  their  responsibility. 
Jackson,  a  very  different  man  from  the  former  man 
of  the  people,  seized  the  opportunity.  Thus  the 
campaign  of  1828  began  in  1825,  and  in  the  course 
of  the  bitter  struggle  which  ensued  men  divided 


4  EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

into  social  classes  much  as  they  had  done  in  1800. 
The  small  farmers  of  the  country  districts  and  the 
artisan  classes  in  the  towns  of  the  East  accepted 
the  leadership  of  the  West  and  waged  relentless 
war  on  behalf  of  the  "  old  hero,"  as  Jackson  came 
to  be  called.  The  Southern  gentry  who  had  followed 
Crawford,  the  Calhoun  men,  and  certain  remnants 
of  ancient  Federalism  were  now  compelled  to  choose 
between  the  so-called  radicalism  of  the  West  and 
John  Quincy  Adams,  the  Conservative.  Two  parties 
thus  took  the  place  of  the  four  Eepublican  factions 
which  had  contended  for  the  control  of  the  Govern 
ment  and  especially  the  offices  in  1824. 

But  contemporary  with  this  larger  national  con 
flict  there  were  important  state  and  local  struggles 
on  which  the  success  of  Jackson  and  the  West  de 
pended,  and  which  we  must  survey  and  estimate, 
else  the  real  significance  of  the  campaign  of  1828  is 
apt  to  be  overlooked. 

Beginning  with  the  South,  where  Jackson's  lieu 
tenants  were  expecting  their  greatest  gains,  South 
Carolina  was  rent  in  twain  by  a  conflict  of  social 
and  economic  forces  which  was  soon  to  overshadow 
national  issues.  According  to  the  constitutional  bar 
gain  of  1809,  the  low  country  and  the  black  belt, 
that  is,  the  region  of  the  historic  river  plantations 
and  the  newer  cotton  country,  were  always  to  have 
a  majority  in  both  houses  of  the  legislature,  which 
chose  the  governor,  the  judges,  and  other  important 
officials.  The  reason  of  this  was  that  the  great  ma 
jority  of  the  slaves  were  held  in  this  section,  and 
without  complete  control  of  the  Government  the 


ANDREW  JACKSON  5 

masters  felt  that  their  interests  would  be  sacrificed 
to  the  democracy  of  the  up-country.  The  hill  and 
mountain  region,  on  the  other  hand,  had  a  large 
majority  of  the  white  population.  But  by  the  ar 
rangement  of  1809  the  people  of  this  section  must 
content  themselves  with  remaining  in  the  minority 
in  the  state  legislature,  and  suppress  whatever  of 
opposition  they  felt  toward  the  institution  of  slavery, 
the  cause  of  their  effacement. 

It  was,  however,  this  up-country  which  had  been 
the  mainstay  of  the  Jeffersonian  party.  Calhoun 
was  a  son  of  this  region,  and  he  had  grown  up  in 
the  midst  of  the  bitterest  opposition  to  the  eastern 
aristocracy.  But  gradually,  under  the  influence  of 
cotton-growing,  he  and  some  of  his  fellows  yielded 
to  the  old  order  of  the  Pinckneys  and  the  Butlers, 
and  the  older  order  yielded  a  little  to  the  demo 
cratic  group  in  the  State.  This  produced  the  united 
'South  Carolina  which  gave  to  the  country  Calhoun, 
Lowndes,  and  Hayne,  nationalists  of  the  most  ar 
dent  type  in  1816  ;  and  for  a  few  years  it  seemed 
that  these  astute  leaders  would  play  the  role  of  the 
old  Virginia  dynasty. 

But  when  Calhoun,  with  the  aid  of  high  protec 
tionist  Pennsylvania,  was  bending  all  his  energies, 
in  1824,  to  winniug  the  Presidency,  there  broke  out 
an  insurgency  in  the  former  Federalist  section  of 
his  State  which  boded  ill  for  the  future.  The  burden 
of  its  complaint  was  the  national  tariff,  which  bore 
heavily  on  the  cotton  and  rice  planters.  Between 
1824  and  1828  the  lower  Carolinians  developed  a 
vindictive  hostility  toward  the  leaders  of  nationalism 


6  EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

in  the  State  and  especially  toward  Calhoun,  who  was 
considered  responsible  for  the  oppressions  of  the 
tariff.  Robert  Barnwell  Rhett  and  William  Smith, 
two  perfect  representatives  of  aristocratic  South 
Carolina,  led  the  fight.  Senator  Hayne  was  among 
the  first  to  yield;  George  McDuffie,  an  up-country 
leader,  next  surrendered  ;  finally  most  Southern  mem 
bers  of  the  National  House  of  Representatives  took 
up  the  cry  against  the  tariff  and  extreme  nationalism. 
Nothing  was  more  certain  in  1826  than  that  Calhoun 
and  his  nationalist  party  would  be  driven  to  the  wall. 
Vice-President  Calhoun  had  taken  note  of  the 
coming  storm,  and  in  1827,  when  the  woolens  bill,  a 
highly  protectionist  measure,  was  before  Congress, 
a  measure  in  which  all  the  Middle  States'  interests 
were  greatly  concerned,  he  took  pains  to  have  his 
vote  recorded  against  the  bill.  Thus  he  publicly  an 
nounced  his  change  of  heart.  A  year  later  he  was 
even  more  outspoken  in  his  opposition  to  the  famous 
"  Tariff  of  Abominations."  However,  he  had  already 
made  an  alliance  with  Jackson,  whose  attitude  on  the 
tariff  no  one  knew,  and  who  was  very  popular  with 
the  protectionists  of  Pennsylvania.  It  was  clearly 
understood  that  Jackson  would  serve  only  one  term 
as  President  and  that  Calhoun  should  succeed  him. 
The  leaders  of  the  older  section  of  South  Carolina, 
urging  secession,  were  now  confronted  with  a  peculiar 
dilemma.  A  conference  with  Calhoun  led  in  1828 
to  a  reversal  of  the  secession  movement,  and  culmi 
nated  in  the  proposition  that  South  Carolina  should 
suspend  the  tariff  law  of  the  country  and  ask  a  ref 
erendum  of  the  various  States  on  the  subject.  If 


ANDREW  JACKSON  7 

this  failed,  then  secession  was  to  be  the  remedy. 
"  Nullification  "  was  the  name  which  this  referendum 
soon  acquired. 

The  attitude  of  South  Carolina  was  that  of  every 
other  Southern  State  from  Virginia  to  Mississippi, 
and  everywhere  it  was  the  older  and  more  important 
groups  of  counties  which  so  bitterly  opposed  the 
protective  policy.  In  Virginia  college  boys  met  in 
formal  session  and  resolved  to  wear  "  homespun " 
rather  than  submit  to  the  "yoke"  of  the  Northern 
manufacturers;  in  North  Carolina  the  legislature 
declared  the  tariff  law  unconstitutional.  At  the  com 
mencement  of  the'  University  of  Georgia  the  orator 
of  the  occasion  appeared  in  a  suit  of  white  cotton 
cloth,  while  his  valet  wore  the  cast-off  suit  of  shining 
broadcloth.  The  "  Tariff  of  Abominations,"  passed 
in  1828,  was  producing  revolutionary  results  in  all 
the  region  where  tobacco,  cotton,  and  rice  were  grown, 
and  this  was  the  governing  section  of  the  South.1 

Nor  was  this  all ;  Georgia  was  still  at  the  point 
of  making  actual  war  upon  the  United  States  be 
cause  the  President  and  Congress  did  not  remove 
the  Creek  and  Cherokee  Indians  as  rapidly  as  the 
cotton  planters  desired.  The  Cherokees  had  de 
clared  themselves  a  State  within  the  boundaries  of 
Georgia,  defied  both  local  and  national  authority, 
and  applied  to  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
for  recognition  and  support.  The  Government  of 
Georgia  had  formally  spread  her  laws  over  the  In 
dian  lands  and  imprisoned  those  who  resisted  her 
sway. 

1  See  maps  on  pp.  133,  134. 


8  EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

This  Indian  problem  which  Jackson  would  have 
to  solve  was  of  the  utmost  importance  to  all  the 
region  from  Georgia  to  northwestern  Louisiana,  for 
in  that  region  lived  the  ambitious  and  prosperous 
cotton  planters,  who  were  bent  on  getting  possession 
of  all  the  fertile  lands  of  their  section,  and  the 
legislatures  of  Alabama  and  Mississippi  followed 
the  example  of  Georgia  in  assuming  jurisdiction 
over  all  Indians  within  their  boundaries.  Jackson 
entertained  no  tender  scruples  about  dispossessing 
the  natives,  a  fact  which  was  well  known  and  widely 
advertised.  When,  therefore,  Crawford,  who  had 
been  very  popular  with  the  planters  of  all  the  South, 
gave  up  his  antagonism  to  the  Tennessee  candidate, 
and  joined  with  the  friends  of  Calhoun,  whom  Craw 
ford  hated  only  a  little  more  than  he  had  disliked 
Jackson,  there  was  no  substantial  resistance  in  any 
of  the  States,  from  South  Carolina  to  Louisiana. 
The  way  was  preparing  for  a  united  South  and 
West. 

If  the  Crawford  men  of  the  lower  South  gave  up 
their  hostility  to  Jackson  and  the  extreme  anti- 
nationalists  of  South  Carolina  submitted  once  more 
to  "  Calhoun  and  Jackson,"  it  was  by  no  means  cer* 
tain  what  the  gentry  of  the  eastern  counties  of  North 
Carolina  would  do.  They  had  supported  Crawford 
in  the  last  campaign,  and  there  was  neither  Indian 
nor  land  question  to  compel  them  to  support  the 
Western  candidate.  Moreover,  there  was  a  bitter 
struggle  between  the  east  and  the  west  of  North 
Carolina  which  resembled  very  much  the  secession 
movement  in  South  Carolina.  The  eastern  men  owned 


ANDREW  JACKSON  9 

most  of  the  slaves  and  produced  the  large  staple  crops ; 
controlled  the  lawmaking  and  the  other  depart 
ments  of  the  State  Government ;  and  its  leaders 
were  generally,  if  not  always,  the  spokesmen  of  the 
State  in  national  affairs.  This  position  and  these 
advantages  were  legacies  of  the  constitution  of  1776. 
The  fact  that  they  were  in  the  minority  in  point  of 
population  served  only  to  whet  their  appetites  for 
more  power.  On  the  other  hand,  the  leaders  of  the 
western  section  of  the  State  had  fought  for  twenty- 
five  years  to  reform  the  constitution  and  the  laws,  to 
create  new  counties  in  order  to  secure  proportionate 
representation,  and  to  expand  the  suffrage  in  order 
that  their  majorities  might  be  properly  counted. 

The  bitterness  of  the  two  sections  threatened  to 
result  in  civil  war  or  at  least  a  division  of  the  State. 
But  the  eastern  men  yielded  and  in  1835  a  conven 
tion  met  in  Raleigh.  The  planters  were  in  the 
majority.  They  made  concessions,  however,  in  the 
matter  of  representation  and  in  the  popular  election 
of  the  governors,  which  tended  to  reconcile  the  up- 
country  people.  But  the  control  of  taxation,  suffrage, 
and  representation  remained  securely  in  the  hands 
of  the  legislative  majority  of  the  low-country  counties. 
Slavery  and  the  allied  social  system  were  henceforth 
immune,  and  the  distinctions,  forms,  and  realities  of 
a  growing  aristocracy  made  steady  encroachments 
upon  the  life  of  the  State  until  the  outbreak  of  the 
Civil  War. 

Contrary  as  it  may  seem  to  the  ordinary  political 
interests  of  such  men,  the  North  Carolina  gentry 
accepted  Jackson  and  the  Western  party  in  1828, 


10          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

and  the  State  was  almost  a  unit  in  support  of  the 
more  democratic  element  in  the  nation  at  the  very 
time  it  was  at  the  point  of  breaking  to  pieces  locally 
because  one  section  of  the  State  was  unwilling  to 
grant  the  other  a  fair  chance  in  the  common  life. 

Nor  was  it  different  in  Virginia.  There  the  small 
counties  of  the  east,  with  a  minority  of  the  white 
population,  controlled  both  houses  of  the  assembly, 
the  governorship,  the  courts,  and  the  majority  of  the 
State's  representatives  in  Congress.  This  advantage, 
as  in  North  Carolina,  had  been  guaranteed  by  the 
constitution  of  1776.  The  motive  for  this  one-sided 
arrangement  was  the  protection  of  slave  property 
which,  it  must  be  said,  paid  the  larger  share  of  the 
taxes.  In  western  Virginia,  extending  then  to  the 
Ohio  River,  there  was  a  teeming  population  whose 
ablest  leaders  constantly  resisted  this  system  and 
demanded  their  rights.  As  elsewhere  in  the  West 
the  program  was  manhood  suffrage,  equal  represen 
tation,  and  the  popular  election  of  important  state 
officials. 

After  twenty-five  years  of  agitation,  a  constitu 
tional  convention  met  in  Richmond  in  the  autumn 
of  1829.  Reformers  everywhere  looked  to  this  body 
in  the  hope  that  something  might  be  done  to  "  put 
slavery  in  a  way  to  final  extinction."  Madison,  Mon 
roe,  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  and  John  Randolph  were 
members.  All  of  these  favored  eastern  Virginia  and 
defended  the  privileged  minority.  Thomas  Jefferson 
Randolph,  grandson  of  Jefferson,  Philip  Dodd ridge, 
and  Alexander  Campbell  represented  the  western  sec 
tion  of  the  State  and  democracy.  After  months  of 


ANDREW  JACKSON  11 

debate  which  covered  every  subject  in  government, 
and  especially  slavery  and  its  possible  abolition,  the 
convention  decided,  in  the  face  of  serious  threats  of 
secession  on  the  part  of  the  up  country,  to  grant  to 
the  more  populous  section  only  a  slight  increase  in 
the  number  of  representatives.  The  power  of  property 
in  government  was  once  again  confirmed,  and  so  hope 
less  was  the  outlook  that  prominent  anti-slavery  men 
deserted  their  own  cause  and  joined  the  other  side 
during  the  next  decades. 

It  was  not  an  easy  thing  for  John  Randolph, 
and  the  other  champions  of  the  eastern  Virginia  oli 
garchy  to  commit  their  cause  to  the  democratic  party 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  whose  leader  was  the  "  law 
less  "  Jackson.  Yet  this  is  what  they  did.  Nowhere 
outside  of  South  Carolina  was  the  influence  of  Cal- 
houn  more  effective  than  in  Virginia,  and  it  must 
have  been  this  which  turned  the  balance  in  favor 
of  "  the  General." 

From  northern  Virginia,  even  from  eastern  Mary 
land,  to  middle  Georgia  the  case  of  democracy  seemed 
doomed.  John  Randolph  had  denounced  it  as  a  mon 
strous  "tyranny  of  King  Numbers";  Judge  Gaston, 
one  of  the  purest  and  best  men  of  North  Carolina, 
declared  that  the  cry,  "let  the  people  rule,"  was  falla 
cious,  and  asked  with  great  concern,  "  What  is  then 
to  become  of  our  system  of  checks  and  balances  ?  " 
While  the  radical  spokesmen  of  the  South  Carolina 
aristocracy  declared  that  they  would  never  submit 
to  that  "  dangerous  principle  of  majority  rule." 

The  growth  of  the  cotton  industry  between  1800 
and  1830  had  done  much  to  retard  the  growth  of 


12          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

democracy,  so  urgently  advocated  by  Jefferson  ;  while 
the  interests  of  the  cotton  planters  and  the  fears  of  the 
tobacco  growers  had  served  to  "  swing  the  leaders  " 
of  the  aristocratic  South  into  the  Jackson  columns. 
Though  the  price  of  raw  cotton  had  declined  from 
forty-four  cents  per  pound  in  the  former  year  to  ten 
cents  in  the  latter,  the  annual  increase  in  the  value 
of  the  total  output  between  1820  and  1830  was 
11,000,000  and  from  1830  to  1840  the  value  of  this 
staple  crop  increased  from  129,000,000  to  $63,000,- 
000,  while  all  other  items  of  the  national  export 
amounted  only  to  150,000,000  per  year.  Cotton 
was  grown  in  a  comparatively  narrow  belt  of  coun 
try  extending  from  lower  North  Carolina  to  the  Red 
River  counties  of  Louisiana  and  Arkansas,  with  a 
total  population  in  1830  of  little  more  than  1,500,- 
000  people,  of  whom  500,000  were  negro  slaves. 
Yet  their  annual  output  was  worth  in  1830,  $29,000,- 
000  and  in  1840,  $63,000,000. 

In  the  older  South  the  tobacco  crop  was  not  appre 
ciably  greater  in  1830  than  it  had  been  in  1800, 
though  in  the  succeeding  decade  the  value  of  the 
annual  harvest  rose  from  $5,000,000  to  $9,000,000, 
and  the  manufacturing  of  tobacco  became  an  impor 
tant  industry  in  many  localities.  Rice  culture  was 
at  a  standstill  during  these  years,  and  sugar  was 
only  making  a  beginning ;  but  the  total  of  these  sta 
ples,  including  cotton,  reaches  almost  to  two  thirds 
of  the  national  exports.  The  annual  per  capita  in 
come  of  the  lower  South  ranged  during  the  Jack- 
sonian  era  from  thirty  to  forty  dollars,  while  that  of 
the  older  Southern  States  like  Virginia  and  Maryland 


ANDREW   JACKSON  13 

was  not  half  so  great,  and  the  average  for  the  coun 
try  as  a  whole  fell  much  below  that  of  the  South. 
There  was  thus  a  marked  contrast  between  the  for 
tune  of  the  average  Middle  States  man  and  that  of  the 
cotton  planters. 

The  result  was  an  extraordinary  movement  south- 
westward,  especially  from  the  older  South  and  Ken 
tucky,  where  population  was  almost  stationary  during 
a  period  of  twenty  years.  In  Virginia  good  lands 
sold  for  less  than  the  cost  of  the  buildings  on  them. 
Jefferson's  home,  Monticello,  including  two  hundred 
acres  of  land,  sold  at  public  auction  in  1829  for 
$2500.  Each  autumn  saw  thousands  of  masters  with 
their  families  and  slaves  take  up  the  march  over  the 
up-country  road  through  Danville,  Virginia,  and 
Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  to  Georgia  and  Alabama, 
or  over  the  mountains  to  the  valley  of  Virginia, 
whence  they  followed  the  great  highland  trough 
south  west  ward  to  the  Tennessee  and  Tombigbee  Val 
leys.  The  population  of  Alabama  alone  increased 
from  300,000  in  1830  to  600,000  ten  years  later. 
Unimproved  lands  in  the  cotton  country  sold  at  prices 
ranging  from  $2  to  $  100  per  acre,  and  plantations 
spread  rapidly  over  the  better  parts  of  the  lower  South. 
Men  could  afford  to  give  away  or  abandon  their 
homes  in  the  old  South  in  order  to  establish  plan 
tations  in  the  Gulf  States,  for  in  ten  years  thrifty 
men  became  rich,  as  riches  went  in  those  days.  The 
cotton  country  was  a  magnet  which  drew  upon  the 
Middle  and  Atlantic  States  for  their  best  citizens 
during  a  period  of  twenty  years. 

While  the  Jackson  leadership  "  captured "  both 


14          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

the  conservatives  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  and 
the  radicals  of  the  Gulf  region,  the  cause  of  democ 
racy  made  great  gains  in  the  Middle  States.  Half 
of  Maryland  favored  Jackson,  and  strangely  enough 
the  conservative  half.  Pennsylvania,  the  head  and 
front  of  popular  government  since  the  days  of  Ben 
jamin  Franklin,  gave  every  evidence  of  joining  the 
standard  of  Jackson  early  in  the  contest.  New  York 
had  held  a  constitutional  convention  in  1821  and 
opened  the  way  for  universal  suffrage  and  the  pop 
ular  election  of  most  state  and  county  officers.  So 
radical  had  been  the  sweep  of  reform  that  Chancel 
lor  Kent  and  other  conservatives  spent  their  ener 
gies  in  protest  and  prophecy  of  dire  results  to  come. 
But  it  was  probably  the  work  of  Van  Buren,  a 
conservative  "  boss  "  of  New  York,  and  of  Samuel 
D.  Ingham,  a  wealthy  manufacturer  of  Pennsylvania 
and  an  ally  of  Calhoun,  that  made  sure  the  votes  of 
these  great  States ;  for  men  of  the  old  Federalist 
party  and  extreme  protectionists  of  both  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania  ranged  themselves  behind  Jackson 
and  his  Western  democracy. 

If  we  turn  now  to  the  chances  of  Clay  and  Adams, 
we  must  look  to  a  part  of  Maryland,  to  Delaware 
and  New  Jersey  evenly  divided,  it  seems,  between  the 
"  forward  and  the  backward-looking  "  men,  and  to 
New  England.  Connecticut  abandoned  her  State 
Church  in  1818  and  extended  the  electoral  franchise 
to  all  who  enrolled  in  the  militia.  Vermont,  New 
Hampshire,  and  Maine  were  border  States  and  dis 
tinctly  Western  in  their  ideals,  though  they  were  in  no 
way  inclined  to  desert  the  New  England  leader.  Mas- 


ANDREW  JACKSON  15 

sachusetts,  the  great  State  of  the  East,  held  firmly  to 
her  conservative  moorings.  In  the  constitutional  con 
vention  of  1820  the  liberals  had  failed  at  every  point. 
Webster  and  Story  had  defeated  the  proposition  for 
abolishing  the  property  qualification  for  membership 
in  the  State  Senate;  and  the  more  radical  plan  for 
overthrowing  the  established  Congregational  Church, 
the  bulwark  of  steady  habits  in  Massachusetts,  was 
similarly  voted  down.  Webster,  like  Randolph,  of 
Virginia,  and  Rhett,  of  South  Carolina,  urged  that 
property  should  rule  in  every  well-ordered  commu 
nity,  and  what  Webster,  Randolph,  and  Rhett  urged, 
their  respective  States  adopted.  Even  more  reaction 
ary  was  little  Rhode  Island,  where  privilege  and  in 
equality  were  as  firmly  intrenched  as  anywhere  else 
in  the  country.  The  suffrage  was  limited  to  free 
holders  and  representation  was  denied  the  majority 
of  the  people.  The  control  of  governor,  legislature, 
and  courts  was  in  the  hands  of  the  minority.  In 
1821,  1822,  and  1824  leaders  of  the  majority  en 
deavored  to  secure  reforms,  but  without  success. 

From  Augusta,  Maine,  to  Baltimore  stretched  the 
long  strip  of  country  which  could  be  relied  on  to  vote 
for  John  Quincy  Adams  and  to  sustain  conservative 
ideals  in  government.  Western  New  York  was  also 
inclined  to  Adams,  and  Clay  was  confident  that  he 
could  carry  Ohio  and  Kentucky,  the  conservative 
communities  of  the  West,  for  his  ally.  In  the  main 
the  men  who  supported  the  Administration  were 
those  who  feared  the  rough  ways  of  plain  men,  the 
ideals  of  equality  and  popular  initiative  so  dear  to 
the  American  heart. 


16          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

The  managers  of  Jackson's  campaign  were  mem. 
bers  of  the  United  States  Senate.  Calhoun  sat  in  the 
Vice-President's  chair  ;  Van  Buren  was  the  leader  of 
the  Middle  States  group  of  the  opposition ;  John 
Randolph  was  there  and  ever  ready  to  turn  his  won 
derful  gifts  of  ridicule  and  sarcasm  against  the  Puritan 
who  sat  in  the  "  Mansion  "  and  "  wasted  the  money 
of  the  people  ";  Nathaniel  Macon,  one  of  the  most 
popular  of  all  the  Senators,  opposed  the  second  Adams 
as  earnestly  as  he  had  fought  the  first ;  George  Poin- 
dexter,  of  Mississippi,  was  one  of  the  most  powerful 
politicians  of  the  cotton  kingdom,  and  he  showed  a 
never-failing  hostility  to  "  Clay  and  his  President "; 
but  Thomas  H.  Benton,  of  Missouri,  was  the  most 
effective,  perhaps,  of  all  these  men  who  were  bent  on 
the  overthrow  of  Adams  and  Clay. 

They  kept  the  "  bargain  and  sale  "  charge  alive 
till  the  very  day  of  the  election.  Benton  urged  on 
every  possible  occasion  the  adoption  of  constitutional 
amendments  forbidding  the  President  to  appoint 
members  of  Congress  to  office,  restricting  the  presi 
dential  term  to  four  years  without  possibility  of  re 
election,  and  limiting  the  powers  and  jurisdiction  of 
the  Supreme  Court.  He  also  kept  the  Western  squat 
ters  on  the  public  lands  closely  attached  to  him  by 
promising  that  if  he  ever  came  to  power  their  rights 
to  the  farms  they  had  taken  without  leave  should  be 
confirmed  by  law.  Nor  did  he  forget  to  denounce 
Adams  for  "  wantonly  giving  away  Texas  "  in  the 
negotiations  with  Spain  in  1819.  Every  movement 
of  the  Government  was  combated  at  every  point 
and  defeated  if  possible.  Van  Buren,  Calhoun,  and 


ANDREW  JACKSON  17 

Benton  were  an  able  trio,  and  they  resorted  for 
four  years  to  every  possible  device  to  discredit 
the  President  and  his  Secretary  of  State  and  at 
the  same  time  to  secure  the  election  of  Andrew 
Jackson. 

Duff  Green,  of  Missouri,  was  brought  to  Wash 
ington  to  establish  and  edit  TJie  Telegraph,  the 
organ  of  the  opposition  which  began  operations  in 
1826.  It  gave  currency  to  the  campaign  literature 
and  educated  the  people  in  the  cause  of  the  West. 
Adams  was  an  aristocrat ;  he  lived  sumptuously 
every  day  at  the  public  expense ;  he  did  not  asso 
ciate  with  the  people ;  and  he  aped  the  courts  of 
Europe,  where  he  had  spent  so  much  of  his  life.  The 
people  of  the  South  and  West  reached  the  point 
where  they  could  believe  anything  against  John 
Quincy  Adams.  No  other  President  of  the  United 
States  has  ever  been  so  shamefully  treated,  save  one, 
and  that  one  was  Martin  Van  Buren,  the  man  who 
was  leading  the  onslaughts  of  1828. 

Adams  and  Clay  were  helpless ;  it  was  difficult 
for  them  to  secure  popular  allies  or  get  a  fair  hear 
ing.  Richard  Rush,  the  son  of  the  Jeffersonian 
radical  of  1800,  was  made  candidate  for  the  Vice- 
Presidency  in  the  hope  of  winning  Pennsylvania ; 
Clay  did  his  utmost  to  stem  the  tide  in  the  West ; 
Daniel  Webster  was,  of  course,  on  the  side  of 
Adams ;  William  Wirt  and  James  Barbour  stood 
up  bravely  in  Virginia  for  a  doomed  cause.  But  these 
earnest  and  patriotic  men  could  not  rally  the  nor 
mal  strength  of  the  conservatives,  for  the  Southern 
planters  had  accepted  Jackson  and  the  Middle 


18          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

States  conservatives  were  demoralized  by  the  Van 
Buren  and  Ingham  activity. 

The  rough  backwoods  General  had  proved  a 
politician  too  astute  for  the  oldest  heads.  He  had 
been  able  to  enlist  the  services  of  Northern  men  who 
did  not  believe  in  democracy,  and  he  had  the  loyal 
support  of  Southern  leaders  who  were  just  then 
breaking  down  the  power  of  democracy  in  all  the 
older  States  of  their  section.  He  was  not  less  fortunate 
in  the  expression  of  his  opinions  on  public  questions. 
On  the  tariff,  the  burning  question  of  the  time,  he 
had  no  views  ;  on  internal  improvements  he  had  even 
less  to  say.  Even  on  the  subject  of  the  free  distri 
bution  of  the  public  lands  he  was  silent,  though  most 
Westerners  took  his  hostility  to  the  Indians  to  mean 
that  he  would  do  what  was  desired.  Jackson  was 
"all  things  to  all  men"  in  1828,  and  this  discreet 
attitude  seems  to  have  been  effective,  though  it  was 
to  bring  trouble  when  he  became  President. 

When  the  vote  was  counted,  it  was  found  that  the 
people  had  been  aroused  as  they  had  not  been  before 
since  1800.  The  cry,  "  Shall  the  people  rule  ?"  was 
answered  by  Pennsylvania  by  a  vote  for  Jackson  of 
100,000  as  against  50,000  for  Adams.  Virginia  gave 
Jackson  as  many  votes  in  1828  as  had  been  cast  for 
all  parties  in  1824.  And  the  total  vote  of  the  coun 
try  for  Jackson  was  647,276  as  against  508,064  for 
Adams.  The  General  had  won  every  electoral  vote 
of  the  South  and  the  West ;  and  both  Pennsylvania 
and  New  York  had  sustained  him.  New  England 
was  solid  for  her  candidate,  and  New  Jersey,  Dela 
ware,  and  Maryland  returned  Adams  majorities. 


90  °  Longitude     West 


The  Presidential  Election  of  1828 


Adams  Territory 
S.C.  is  counted  as  "solid." 

Carnegie  Institute  of  Washington.   D.  C 


ANDREW   JACKSON  19 

The  lines  were  drawn,  as  had  been  foreseen,  just  as 
in  the  contest  between  Jefferson  and  John  Adams 
twenty-eight  years  before ;  and  in  general  the  atti 
tudes  of  the  social  classes  were  the  same. 

The  second  alliance  of  South  and  West  had  been 
effected,  and  "  the  people  "  had  come  to  power  a 
second  time,  only  the  West  was  now  the  dominant 
element.  How  would  the  West  and  "  the  people " 
use  their  power? 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

J.  S.  Bassett's  Life  of  Andrew  Jackson  (1911)  is  the  best  work  on 
that  subject,  though  James  Parton's  Life  of  Jackson  (ed.  of  1887) 
is  still  the  best  for  a  documentary  account.  The  biographies  of 
Henry  Clay  and  John  Quincy  Adams  in  the  American  Statesmen 
series  are  the  best  for  these  men.  Of  more  importance  for  a  view 
of  social  and  political  conditions  of  the  South  and  the  East  are:  the 
Debates  of  the  constitutional  conventions  of  Massachusetts  (1820), 
New  York  (1821),  Virginia  (1829),  and  North  Carolina  (1835), 
and  The  Memoir  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  in  twelve  large  volumes, 
which  covers  minutely  the  period  of  1825  to  1848.  This  work 
appeared  in  1874-76.  It  is  a  remarkable  record  of  a  remarkable 
man.  J.  B.  McMaster's  History  of  the  United  States  (1900-13)  is  a 
life  of  the  people  which  no  library  can  afford  to  be  without,  and  J. 
Schouler's  History  of  the  United  States  under  the  Constitution  (re 
vised  ed.  1894-99)  is  equally  good,  giving  a  fuller  account  of  the 
political  and  constitutional  development  of  the  country.  A.  B. 
Hart's  The  American  Nation  (1904-08)  is  a  fuller  cooperative  work 
by  the  leading  scholars  of  the  United  States.  The  volumes  which 
bear  upon  the  period  in  hand  will  be  cited  in  succeeding  chapters. 
Special  studies  of  importance  are:  C.  H.  Ambler's  Sectionalism  in 
Virginia  (1910);  D.  F.  Houston's  Critical  Study  of  Nullification  in 
South  Carolina  (1896) ;  W.  A.  Schaper's  Sectionalism  in  South  Caro 
lina  (1900);  and  H.  M.  Wagstaff's  States  Rights  and  Political 
Parties  in  North  Carolina  (1906). 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    WEST 

TENS  of  thousands  of  eager  people  witnessed  the 
inauguration  of  Andrew  Jackson  on  March  4, 1829; 
they  crowded  the  streets,  stood  upon  the  house-tops, 
and  peered  out  from  every  open  window  ;  they  jostled 
the  attendants  at  the  White  House  and  overturned 
the  bowls  and  jars  which  contained  the  ices  and 
wines  intended  for  the  entertainment  of  the  new 
President  and  his  friends.  "  The  people  have  come 
to  power,"  said  a  chastened  admirer  of  Henry  Clay 
as  she  watched  sadly  the  wreckage  of  the  dainties 
which  dainty  hands  had  prepared,  and  as  she  looked 
with  dismay  upon  the  wearers  of  rough  and  dirty 
boots  striding  over  costly  carpets  where  hitherto 
only  gentlemen  and  ladies  had  trod*.  It  was  a  happy 
occasion  to  the  unthinking  but  honest  democrats  l 
who  gloried  in  the  success  of  their  "  hero,"  but  a 
sad  warning  to  the  more  refined  who  had  been  ac 
customed  to  see  things  done  in  due  form  and  state- 
liness. 

But  neither  the  uninformed  masses  who  looked  on 
with  delight  that  bright  day  nor  the  cultured  people 
whose  hearts  sank  within  them  as  they  saw  the  old 
order  pass  away  recked  aught  of  what  was  to  come 
during  the  next  four  years.  Possibly  the  old  man, 

1  This  term  is  used  to  indicate  those  who  believed  in  democracy, 
not  those  who  called  themselves  Democrats.  The  distinction  will 
be  observed  throughout  the  book. 


THE  WEST  21 

whom  everybody  called  "the  General,"  and  who 
many  feared  could  not  live  out  his  term,  or  the 
solemn-visaged  Vice-President,  who  had  been  filling 
half  the  cabinet  positions  with  his  own  partisans, 
saw  dimly  what  was  to  follow  these  joyous  opening 
days  of  a  new  regime,  for  he  knew  how  unstable  was 
the  base  upon  which  the  new  structure  rested. 

The  people  who  composed  this  new  regime,  the 
men  who  voted  for  Andrew  Jackson  and  who  shouted 
at  and  derided  sturdy  John  Quincy  Adams  as  he 
retired  from  the  Presidency  that  4th  of  March,  were 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  United  States.  But  the  nu 
cleus  of  the  party  of  Jackson  was  the  West.  In  the 
region  which  extends  from  Georgia  to  the  Sabine, 
save  in  New  Orleans  alone,  no  name  equaled  that  of 
the  man  who  had  driven  the  Indians  like  chaff  before 
the  wind  at  the  battle  of  Horseshoe  Bend,  and  who 
a  year  later  had  defeated  the  regiments  of  Great 
Britain  near  New  Orleans.  "  The  General "  was 
known  and  admired  all  over  the  great  valley  of  the 
Mississippi  as  the  friend  of  the  people,  while  John 
Qnincy  Adams  had  resisted  the  demands  of  the 
frontier  and  had  actually  sent  a  regiment  of  the 
United  States  Army  into  Georgia  to  defeat  the  pur 
poses  of  a  popular  governor,  who  was  driving  the 
hated  Indians  from  coveted  cotton  lands.  Jackson 
met,  therefore,  with  little  or  no  opposition  in  this 
region,  and  the  Southwestern  politicians  who  had 
fought  for  Adams  and  Clay  in  the  campaign  of 
1828  had  signed  their  political  death-warrants. 

In  the  older  West,  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Missouri, 
and  Ohio,  Henry  Clay  had  been  the  natural  leader ; 


m          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

and  until  about  1820,  when  he  had  championed  the 
cause  of  the  National  Bank  as  against  local  interests 
and  local  banks,  he  had  been  the  most  popular  man 
west  of  the  Alleghanies.  From  the  beginning  of  the 
Adams  Administration  he  had  lost  steadily  till  in 
1828  he  tasted  for  the  first  time  the  gall  of  political 
defeat.  In  these  older  Western  communities  it  was 
still  a  reproach  to  a  public  man  to  ally  himself  with 
New  England  and  the  United  States  Bank,  though 
he  might  favor  the  protective  tariff,  and  he  must 
support  internal  improvements.  In  addition  to  sup 
porting  John  Quincy  Adams  after  1825,  Clay  led  a 
"fast  and  extravagant"  life  in  Washington,  which 
only  added  to  his  unpopularity  in  the  West.  In 
1831  it  was  with  much  difficulty,  and  after  a  close 
contest  with  Richard  M.  Johnson,  that  he  was  re 
turned  to  the  United  States  Senate.  General  Jack 
son  had  completely  won  the  leadership  of  the  Clay 
territory  and  the  affections  of  the  plain  farmers. 

In  the  Northwest  there  were  other  large  areas  of 
fertile  lands  in  the  possession  of  the  hated  Indians, 
and  there,  as  in  the  Southwest,  the  most  popular 
leader  was  he  who  believed  and  taught  that  the 
quickest  way  to  build  up  the  country  was  to  take 
immediate  possession  of  these  lands.  In  Michigan, 
Indiana,  and  Illinois  the  small  farmers  and  the  pio 
neers  were  almost  as  enthusiastic  followers  of  Jack 
son  as  were  their  economic  kinsmen  of  the  Gulf  region. 

With  these  backwoods  States  thus  devoted  to  the 
man  to  whom  Chief  Justice  Marshall  had  sorrow 
fully  administered  the  oath  of  office,  it  was  easy  for 
the  leaders  of  the  new  regime  to  make  strong  appeal 


THE  WEST  23 

to  the  mountain  counties  of  the  Middle  States  and 
South,  whose  political  idol  had  been  Thomas  Jeffer 
son  and  whose  people  were  only  a  generation  re 
moved  from  the  pioneer  stage  of  development.  With 
the  exception  of  some  of  the  New  England  emigres 
of  western  New  York,  the  peasant  proprietors  of  all 
the  up-country  counties  of  the  Middle  States  gave 
Jackson  their  allegiance  ;  while  south  of  ^Maryland, 
except  in  a  few  counties  of  western  Virginia,  almost 
every  man  in  the  hill  country  was  a  stanch  defender 
of  the  first  Western  President.  Thus  in  the  W7est 
and  in  the  interior  of  the  States  which  bordered 
upon  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  Jackson  had  a  great 
compact  following  which  for  years  to  come  was  to 
give  him  the  advantage  over  all  his  opponents. 

The  radical  and  enthusiastic  wing  of  the  new  party 
was  the  Southwest,  closely  followed  by  the  North 
west  ;  the  older  WTest  and  the  up-country  of  the 
Middle  States  and  South  composed  the  "  solid  "  ele 
ment  ;  while  the  low-country  men,  the  planters  of 
Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  regarded  askance  the 
democratic  leader  whom  they  had  reluctantly  helped 
to  the  Presidency.  Of  real  organization  and  party 
discipline  there  was  little,  and  the  beliefs  and  prin 
ciples  of  the  various  groups  of  the  party  were  some 
times  antagonistic.  On  one  thing  only  were  most  of 
these  men  united :  on  the  necessity  of  keeping  New 
England  out  of  the  control  of  the  Government. 
Surely  any  one  who  knew  the  actual  conditions  of 
1829,  the  ambitions  and  the  smouldering  animosities 
of  the  Jackson  lieutenants,  must  have  faced  the 
future  with  more  than  ordinary  doubt  and  anxiety. 


24          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

But  the  people  who  shouted  at  the  inauguration 
and  who  had  voted  "  the  ticket "  the  preceding 
November  did  not  know  the  feelings  of  their  lead 
ers.  They  thought  that  this  country  was  a  democ 
racy  and  that  a  majority  of  the  electorate  was 
entitled  to  rule.  Their  ideals  were  those  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  which  were  not  very 
popular  in  New  England,  and  which  were  just  then 
being  repudiated  in  the  planter  sections  of  the  South. 
They  lived  the  lives  of  simple  farmers  and  daily 
practiced  the  doctrine  of  social  equality,  and  hence 
they  could  not  understand  why  others  should  not  do 
the  same,  or  why  there  should  be  anything  difficult 
or  complex  in  the  work  of  the  incoming  President. 

In  all  the  Western  States  almost  every  office  was 
filled  by  popular  election.  Legislatures  met  annu 
ally  and  unpopular  men  or  measures  could  be 
promptly  recalled,  to  employ  a  modern  term.  Even 
the  judges  of  the  courts  were  subject  to  frequent 
election  and  were  quite  attentive  to  popular  opinion  ; 
while  United  States  Senators  must  canvass  for  votes 
in  ardent  campaigns  which  strongly  resembled  the 
primary  contests  of  the  South  and  West  to-day. 
But  this  democracy  of  the  larger  section  of  the 
country  which  supported  Jackson  was  counterbal 
anced  by  the  prestige  and  experience  of  its  allies  of 
the  South,  where,  by  reason  of  the  three-fifths  rule 
of  representation  for  the  slaves,  which  gave  the  mas 
ter  of  slaves  a  privileged  position,  and  of  long  politi 
cal  habit,  a  few  planters  exercised  power  out  of  all 
proportion  to  their  numbers. 

Still  the  history  of  the  country  after  1812  indi- 


THE   WEST  25 

cated  that  the  Western  voters  and  not  the  Eastern 
leaders  would  control  the  Government  while  Jack 
son  was  President.  These  voters  were  nationalists 
and  their  position  made  them  look  to  the  Federal 
Government  for  better  roads  and  improved  mar 
kets  ;  they  were  expansionists  who  not  only  coveted 
the  lands  of  the  Indians,  but  wanted  also  to  seize 
the  territory  of  their  neighbors.  They  were  already 
taking-  possession  of  Texas,  and  Thomas  H.  Benton 
and  Lewis  Cass,  of  Michigan,  their  most  popular 
leaders  after  Jackson,  were  already  the  exponents 
of  an  early  imperialism  which  would  never  rest  until 
the  shores  of  the  Pacific  became  the  western  frontier 
of  the  United  States.  In  every  State  that  bordered 
on  the  Mississippi  this  sentiment  was  ardent,  and 
many  good  men  were  ready  to  make  war  upon  JVlexi< 
for  Texas  or  upon  England  for  Oregon,  whose  bound 
aries  no  one  knew  and  whose  title  had  been  held 
jointly  by  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 
since  1818. 

Moreover,  the  Western  men  occupied  a  peculiar 
position  in  the  country  because  of  the  fact  that  a 
large  number  of  them  had  bought  their  lands  from 
the  Federal  Government  on  easy  terms,  at  two  dol 
lars  or  even  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  an  acre,  and  were 
still  in  debt  for  them  to  the  Government  or  the  banks 
or  other  creditors.  This  indebtedness  still  further 
stimulated  their  restlessness  of  character.  The  land 
laws  of  the  United  States  were  apparently  liberal, 
but  unless  the  settler  could  obtain  land  near  a  navi 
gable  stream,  it  was  a  most  difficult  matter  to  buy 
even  a  quarter  section  and  make  the  improvements 


26  EXPANSION  AND   CONFLICT 

necessary  to  successful  farming.  And  since  all  the 
river  area  had  long  since  been  occupied,  the  West 
erners  of  1830  had  bought  their  land  in  the  remote 


Distribution  of  Indians 

and  Loration  of 

Indian  .Lands  and 

Unorganized  Territory 

of  the  United  States 

or  the  States, 


Small  county  areagBhon 
already  Settled 
Reproduced  from  Tanner's  Map  of  1830 

1  this  map  with  similar  one          SCALE  OF 

for  1840.  PS»  pag.  88 


districts  and  begun  the  hard  struggle  of  "paying 
out."  The  distance  to  markets  made  this  an  almost 
hopeless  task,  and  the  holders  of  the  frontier  farms 


THE   WEST  27 

came  to  think  their  lot  a  peculiarly  hard  one.  They 
resisted  always ;  and  in  hard  years,  after  driving  a 
herd  of  cattle  or  a  drove  of  hogs  to  the  distant  mar 
ket  and  receiving  therefor  barely  the  cost  of  pro 
duction,  they  were  angry  and  resentful. 

The  frontier  remedy  for  these  ills  was  an  "  easier  " 
currency  or  high  prices  for  commodities,  or  stay  laws 
against  creditors  who  pressed  for  their  money.  And 
since  a  great  number  of  the  Western  farmers  had 
simply  taken  up  their  lands,  before  they  were  thrown 
open  to  sale,  and  made  improvements  on  them  with 
out  procuring  titles,  they  feared  the  enforcement  of 
the  federal  law  against  them  and  clamored  for  a  pre 
emption  system  which  would  secure  them  their  land, 
when  the  day  of  sales  did  come,  at  the  minimum 
price,  11.25  per  acre.  A  still  better  plan  was  already 
strongly  urged,  the  free  gift  of  small  tracts  of  land 
to  all  who  would  go  Wrest  and  build  homes.  Not  only 
would  this  be  good  for  the  home-seeker,  but  it  would 
result  in  the  rapid  upbuilding  of  the  great  wastes  of 
the  country.  Animated  by  such  purposes  as  these, 
Benton  and  his  colleagues  in  Congress  were  con 
stantly  gaining  strength  as  their  constituents  in 
creased  in  number. 

Thus  the  restless  but  devoted  followers  of  Jackson 
were  developing  a  program :  the  removal^  of  the  In 
dians  in  order  that  more  cotton  and  corn  might  be 
grown  ;  the  seizure  of  the  territory  contiguous  to  the 
western  frontier,  even  at  the  cost  of  war  with  Mexico 
and  England;  the  giving  of  free  homesteads  to  all 
who  would  go  West  and  join  in  the  upbuilding  of  the 
Mississippi  Commonwealths;  and  the  improvement 


28          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

of  roadways  at  national  expense  in  order  that  West 
ern  products  might  find  better  markets.  These  were 
the  things  which  the  Westerners  ardently  desired  and 
which  it  was  hoped  the  new  President  would  be  able 
to  obtain  for  them.  Incidentally,  he  was  expected  to 
set  up  the  rule  of  the  people  in  the  national  capital , 
and  to  substitute  a  more  simple  life  and  etiquette 
for  the  formal  and  fashionable  manners  which  had 
come  into  vogue  with  Monroe  and  his  Cabinet. 

The  strength  of  the  Western  people  was  great,  and 
to  the  East  it  appeared  ominous.  They  numbered 
in  1830  nearly  4,000,000  souls  as  compared  with 
12,500,000  for  the  country  as  a  whole,  and  their 
increase  in  the  preceding  decade  had  run  from  22 
per  cent  in  Kentucky  to  185  per  cent  in  Illinois. 
In  the  National  House  of  Representatives  the  West 
cast  47  votes  in  a  total  of  213  ;  in  the  Senate  their 
strength  was  18  in  a  total  of  48.  But  this  does  not 
fairly  represent  their  influence.  In  western  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia  there  were  more 
than  a  million  people  who  counted  themselves  West 
erners,  while  in  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  a  ma 
jority,  or  more  than  another  half-million,  must  be 
reckoned  as  adherents  of  the  cause  of  the  "  Trans- 
alleghany."  Thus  about  6,000,000  of  the  total 
12,500,000  were  Western  in  character  and  ideals, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  large  frontier  element  in  New 
England. 

In  economic  strength,  however,  these  Jackson 
States  and  communities  were  much  weaker.  They 
were  isolated.  Their  surplus  crops  had  no  value  save 
as  they  were  produced  within  reach  of  navigable 


THE  WEST  29 

rivers.  Of  these  the  5,500,000  people  living  in  the 
region  drained  by  the  Mississippi  and  the  other 
streams  which  fall  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  exported 
about  $17,800,000  worth  of  commodities  in  1830,  a 
per  capita  value  of  less  than  $4.  And  most  of  this 
surplus  output  came  from  the  cotton  counties  of  the 
lower  South,  where  only  a  small  proportion  of  the 
population  of  the  West  dwelt.  Still,  the  herds  of 
cattle  and  droves  of  swine  that  were  driven  south 
ward  to  the  cotton  communities  or  over  the  mountains 
to  Eastern  cities,  and  the  large  quantities  of  grain 
which,  after  1825,  found  its  way  to  market  through 
the  Erie  Canal,  added  greatly  to  and  perhaps  doubled 
the  income  of  the  West  from  exports  down  the  Mis 
sissippi.  When  all  is  told,  however,  these  isolated 
people  were  in  the  main  very  poor,  as  the  narratives 
of  travelers  and  the  journals  of  preachers  attest  on 
every  page. 

Yet  every" year  added  thousands  to  the  numbers 
of  Eastern  men  who  migrated  Wrest  to  enjoy  some 
of  the  liberty  of  a  region  where  lands  were  cheap  and 
the  social  life  unconventional;  every  decade  added 
new  voices  and  able  leaders  to  the  Western  group  in 
Congress,  who  clamored  unceasingly  for  the  enact 
ment  of  laws  aimed  at  the  rapid  development  of  that 
section.  New  England,  where  the  rise  of  industrial 
towns  necessitated  an  increasing  number  of  laborers, 
took  fright,  or  had  never  ceased  to  be  alarmed,  at 
the  westward  movement  of  population  ;  and  Eastern 
members  of  Congress,  under  one  pretext  or  another, 
opposed  every  demand  which  came  up  from  the  West, 
every  petition  of  the  "squatters"  on  the  public  do- 


SO  EXPANSION  AND   CONFLICT 

main.  In  the  Middle  States  the  building  of  numer 
ous  canals,  turnpikes,  and  railways  called  for  both 
skilled  and  unskilled  laborers.  But  if  everybody  ran 
off  to  the  West  when  wages  were  unsatisfactory,  these 
improvements  could  not  be  made  and  the  old  com 
munities  would  languish  and  decay. 

Virginia  and  the  South  were  less  disturbed  at 
the  growth  of  the  West,  because  of  their  system  of 
slavery,  and  because  the  votes  of  the  new  States 
could  be  relied  on  to  support  Virginian  and  South 
ern  policies  in  Congress  —  a  legacy  of  the  old  Jef- 
fersonian  alliance  of  the  South  with  the  early 
West ;  and  also  because  of  the  similar  economic  and 
social  life  of  the  two  sections.  But  even  the  Old 
Dominion  in  the  sore  economic  distress  of  the  late 
twenties,  due  in  the  main  to  the  desertion  of  her 
tobacco-fields  and  workshops  by  thousands  of  her 
most  energetic  sons,  who  went  to  the  rich  cotton 
country,  wavered  in  her  loyalty  to  "the  younger 
States  of  the  West.  John  Randolph  ridiculed  in 
merciless  fashion  the  "  sharp-witted "  Westerners, 
whom  he  would  avoid  in  the  high  way  as  "one  would 
a  pickpocket " ;  and  in  both  the  Carolinas  there  was 
a  fear  and  a  dread  of  the  growing  West,  whose  ideals 
were  too  Jeffersonian  and  whose  power  waxed  greater 
with  the  passing  years.  Yet  Calhoun,  Hayne,  and 
other  able  Southerners  remained  true  to  the  new  re 
gion  and  supported  Benton  in  his  debates  with  Foote 
and  Webster  in  1830,  perhaps  because  the  whole 
Jackson  program  of  1829  was  based  upon  the  alli 
ance  of  these  forces  in  the  national  life. 

If  the  political  plans  of  the  Western  men  of  1830 


THE  WEST  31 

were  ambitious  and  far-reaching,  the  lives  of  the 
shrewd  pioneers  were  simple,  hard,  and  narrow.  The 
men  wore  coats  when  the  weather  was  cold,  and 
found  shoes  more  of  a  nuisance  than  a  comfort  dur 
ing  half  the  year  ;  and  the  women  rejoiced  if  they  re 
ceived  a  "  store  "  bonnet  once  in  two  years.  Wants 
were  few  and  the  annual  per  capita  expense  beyond 
what  was  produced  at  home  was  seldom  as  great  as 
$10.  Peter  Cartwright  counted  himself  rich  when 
he  learned  that  the  Methodist  annual  conference  to 
which  he  belonged  had  added  $12  to  his  regular  sti 
pend  of  $100  a  year. 

Most  men,  including  the  clergy,  owned  or  rented 
farms  and  followed  the  plow  in  season,  while  wives 
and  children  did  outdoor  work  from  morning  till 
night.  Houses  were  built  by  the  aid  of  neighbors  in 
a  single  day,  and  extra  rooms  were  improvised  by  the 
judicious  hanging  of  quilts  and  curtains.  A  door  in 
front  and  another  in  the  rear  allowed  plenty  of  fresh 
air,  though  the  large  crevices  between  the  logs  usu 
ally  rendered  this  superfluous.  Floors  were  made  of 
logs  split  in  halves  and  laid  "  with  backs  downward." 
Beds  and  chairs  were  home-made  and  especially  in 
tended  for  the  use  of  the  older  members  of  the  fam 
ily,  boys  and  girls  accommodating  themselves  with 
stools  or  blocks  of  wood  sawed  for  the  purpose. 
Meals  were  prepared  in  a  few  moments  at  the  broad 
fireside,  where  a  huge  crane  aided  the  mother  in 
swinging  her  kettles  on  or  off  the  blazing  fire.  In 
every  pretentious  home  there  was  a  loom  for  the 
weaving  of  cotton  and  woolen  cloth  for  family  or 
neighborhood  consumption ;  and  late  at  night  the 


32          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

steady  thump  of  the  beam  proclaimed  the  industry 
of  the  busy  housewife  as  she  put  in  the  last  threads 
of  her  "  fifth  "  or  "  sixth  yard."  Few  were  so  wealthy 
that  they  could  afford  the  broadcloth  which  came  up 
the  rivers  from  New  Orleans  or  over  the  Erie  Canal 
from  New  York ;  and  when  some  migrating  Virginia 
squire  or  Kentucky  colonel,  master  of  a  thousand 
acres  of  land,  did  so  disport  himself  on  Sundays  or 
at  the  races,  he  appeared  in  his  glossy  suit,  made  by 
the  hand  of  his  devoted  spouse,  wrinkled  and  fretted 
in  a  hundred  places,  not  unlike  Lincoln  when  he  first 
spoke  at  Cooper  Institute,  New  York. 

Life  was  simple  on  the  Western  farm  or  distant 
frontier,  but  pleasure,  too,  had  its  place,  English 
sports  of  Angevin  times  serving  the  place  of  base 
ball  or  golf  of  to-day.  In  the  older  West,  Kentucky, 
Tennessee,  and  Missouri,  the  race-course  was  the 
common  playground  where  horses  and  men  ran  their 
rounds  and  won  their  prizes.  To  drink  deeply  of  the 
strong  "  corn  "  or  "  rye  "  was  as  common  as  is  the 
drinking  of  wine  in  France ;  and  races,  corn-husk- 
ings,  or  weddings  were  seldom  closed  without  drunk 
enness,  and  oftentimes  fisticuffs  or  the  more  fatal 
duel  with  knife  or  pistol.  Jackson  had  "killed  his 
man,"  and  Benton  had  been  knocked  through  a  trap 
door  into  the  basement  of  a  Nashville  bar-room  ; 
Clay  and  Poindexter,  the  Mississippi  Governor  and 
Senator,  had  had  more  than  one  encounter  in  which 
life  was  set  against  life. 

If  men  held  human  life  cheap,  they  held  woman's 
honor  more  than  dear,  and  to  give  currency  to  a  tale 
of  slander  was  tantamount  to  half  a  dozen  dial- 


THE  WEST  33 

lenges.  Women  were  in  the  minority  in  the  West, 
and  although  they  did  not  vote,  they  were  still  of  ut 
most  importance  in  homes  where  clothing  was  hand 
made  and  the  needs  of  numerous  children  increased 
daily.  Henry  Clay  was  one  of  thirteen  or  fourteen 
brothers  and  sisters,  while  Thomas  Marshall,  the 
father  of  the  Chief  Justice,  carried  ten  or  twelve 
children  with  him  to  his  Western  home  about  the 
year  1781.  But  the  sorrows  of  the  pioneer  women 
and  the  waste  of  human  material  were  extraordi 
nary.  In  those  days  of  hardship  and  ignorance  of  the 
most  rudimentary  rules  of  sanitation,  few  knew  how 
to  save  their  children  from  death  due  to  the  simplest 
diseases,  and  the  student  to-day  reads  the  sad  story 
in  the  many  tiny  tombstones  of  the  old  family  ceme 
teries,  knowing  well  that  the  great  majority  rest  in 
unmarked  graves.  Many  were  born  and  many  died 
without  a  fair  chance  at  normal  existence. 

Western  men  were  seldom  members  of  organized 
churches,  though  the  fear  of  the  Deity,  natural  to 
those  who  witnessed  the  great  "  freshets "  and  the 
storms  and  cyclones  which  swept  over  the  plains, 
carrying  entire  villages  with  them  or  cutting  wide 
swaths  through  the  primeval  forests,  was  a  powerful 
influence  upon  everyday  conduct.  Presbyterians, 
Baptists,  and  Methodists,  with  their  strict  and  hard 
Calvinism,  penetrated  first  the  wilderness  beyond  the 
mountains  and  built  their  rude  log  churches,  in  which 
stern  preachers,  like  Samuel  Doak,  of  Tennessee,  or 
Jonathan  Going,  of  Ohio,  warned  men  against  the 
wrath  to  come  and  the  fiery  furnace  below,  whose 
surging  flames  were  ever  ready  to  swallow  up  and 


34          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

consume  stiff-necked,  yet  never-dying  sinners.  The 
simple  and  superstitious  minds  of  the  neglected  West 
flocked  to  these  little  churches  or  to  great  camps 
where  revivalists,  like  James  McCreary,  of  Kentucky, 
or  the  later  Bishop  Soule,  of  Ohio,  preached  for 
weeks  in  succession  and  seemed  to  work  miracles 
hardly  less  wonderful  than  those  of  New  Testament 
times.  Hundreds  were  "  stricken  "  on  a  single  day 
and  were  later  gathered  into  the  church  clothed  and 
in  their  right  minds.  Before  1830  the  greater  de 
nominations  of  the  East  and  South  realized  the  im 
portance  of  the  West  as  a  semi-destitute  land  to 
which  missionaries  should  be  sent,  though  by  this 
time  the  churches  of  the  older  border  and  of  most  of 
the  great  valley  were  self-supporting  and  the  popula 
tion  could  no  longer  complain  that  the  Gospel  had 
never  been  preached  to  them. 

While  the  civilizing  hand  of  the  churches  was  be 
ing  spread  over  the  West,  schools  and  colleges  were 
built  and  opened  to  students.  The  liberal  land  grants 
of  the  Federal  Government  were  made  to  serve  the 
cause  of  common  schools,  while  institutions  of  higher 
learning  flourished  at  Lexington,  Natchez,  Granville 
(Ohio),  and  Hanover  (Indiana),  —  schools  where 
many  of  the  statesmen  of  the  Civil  War  period  were 
trained  and  where  preachers  prepared  themselves  for 
their  strenuous  labors  in  a  poor  country.  The  civil 
izing  forces  of  religion  and  education  were  rapidly 
leavening  the  lump  of  hard  Western  life  and  prepar 
ing  it  for  the  great  days  and  the  awful  struggle  that 
were  so  soon  to  come.  Books  found  their  way  into 
the  Athens  of  the  West,  as  Lexington  was  called, 


THE  WEST  35 

and  gradually,  under  the  fostering  care  of  Henry 
Clay,  the  Mechanics'  Library  came  to  play  an  im 
portant  part.  St.  Louis,  too,  boasted  of  its  Mercan 
tile  Library ;  and  there  were  numerous  other  collec 
tions  of  religious  writings,  history,  and  the  English 
poets,  mostly  in  private  hands  like  those  of  John  M. 
Peck,  of  Illinois.  Newspapers,  such  as  the  Repub 
lican  of  St.  Louis,  the  Ma3^sville  Eagle,  or  the 
Louisville  Advertiser,  carried  their  weekly  or  semi- 
weekly  burden  of  neighborhood  gossip  and  political 
news  to  near-by  villages  and  distant  settlements. 

The  roads  were  also  improving  and  steadily  ex 
panding  the  area  of  productive  farming,  though  all, 
or  nearly  all,  led  to  the  river  ports  or  the  old  fort 
towns  like  La  Porte,  Indiana,  or  Detroit  and  Cleve 
land  on  the  Lakes,.  The  Erie  and  the  Ohio  Canals 
were  already  turning  exports  and  communication 
northeastward,  while  the  Lake  steamers  were  adding 
their  share  to  the  development  of  the  Western  fron 
tier  ;  but  the  great  river  steamers,  the  City  of  New 
Orleans  and  the  Crescent,  which  the  preachers  com 
pared  to  ancient  Babylon,  as  centers  of  vice  and  lewd 
fashion,  were  the  marvels  of  the  West,  and  they  car 
ried  the  burden  of  grain,  tobacco,  and  cotton  which 
crowded  the  wharves  of  New  Orleans.  Cincinnati 
was  the  pork-packing  and  manufacturing  center  of 
the  West,  sending  its  salted  meats  and  farm  imple 
ments  to  the  plantations  of  the  lower  South  in  ever- 
increasing  volume.  St.  Louis  was  the  home  of  the 
most  important  commercial  monopoly  of  the  time, 
the  American  Fur  Company,  which  had  an  undue 
influence  in  national  politics,  and  of  which  John 


36          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Jacob  Astor  was  the  millionaire  head,  to  whom  all 
Americans  looked  up  as  one  of  the  great  figures  of 
his  generation.  From  the  old  half-French,  half- 
American  town  caravans  of  explorers,  trappers,  and 
traders  set  out  each  spring  for  the  Far  Northwest, 
whence  they  returned  annually  with  their  loads  of 
furs  and  their  tales  of  the  wonderful  Oregon  coun 
try.  But  New  Orleans,  with  its  population  of  50,000, 
its  European  life  and  rather  easy  morals,  its  slave 
marts  and  miles  of  cotton  wharves,  was  the  wonder  of 
the  world  to  Western  eyes  like  those  of  young  Abra 
ham  Lincoln,  who  visited  the  city  about  this  time. 
There,  rich  men  lived  in  splendid  mansions,  served  by 
scores  of  negro  slaves ;  there,  great  newspapers  were 
published  and  shrewd  speculators  from  all  parts  of 
the  world  bought  cotton  and  imported  luxuries  for 
the  newly  rich  of  the  Southwest. 

It  was  this  great  West,  pulsating  with  life  and 
vigor,  filled  with  hope  for  the  future,  restless  and 
eager,  at  once  democratic  and  imperialistic,  which 
put  the  resolute  and  dictatorial  Andrew  Jackson  in 
the  President's  chair  in  1829.  And  never  was  con 
stituency  more  truly  represented  than  was  that  of 
the  West  in  the  wiry  old  man  whom  they  called 
"  Old  Hickory."  Accustomed  to  the  hardships  of  the 
poor  in  his  youth  and  to  the  responsibility  of  the 
well-to-do  merchant  and  cotton  planter  in  middle 
life,  he  had  experienced  most  that  was  common  to 
his  fellows  and  had  gained  a  prestige  which  in  their 
admiring  eyes  surpassed  that  of  all  other  men  since 
Thomas  Jefferson.  Brave  and  generous,  plain-spoken 
and  sometimes  boisterous,  he  embodied  most  of  the 


THE  WEST  37 

qualities  that  compelled  admiration  throughout  the 
Mississippi  Valley.  No  matter  what  Webster  or 
Calhoun  or  even  Clay  said  of  "  Old  Hickory,"  it  was 
not  believed  in  the  back-country  until  the  President 
himself  had  confirmed  the  story.  Jackson  was  the 
second  American  President  who  so  understood  "  his 
people  "  that  he  could  interpret  them  and  by  intui 
tion  scent  the  course  the  popular  mind  would  take 
—  particularly  in  the  West. 

To  be  sure,  there  were  small  groups  of  Westerners 
who  opposed  him  and  whom  he  did  not  represent : 
some  of  the  counties  of  Ohio,  a  part  of  the  Blue- 
Grass  region  of  Kentucky,  and  a  narrow  strip  of 
Mississippi  which  lay  in  the  southwestern  part  of 
the  State,  and  finally  the  French  arid  mercantile 
elements  of  New  Orleans ;  but  these  were  never 
strong  enough  to  deprive  him  of  any  object  at  which 
he  aimed.  It  was  well-nigh  "  King  Andrew  I,"  as 
some  Eastern  papers  were  accustomed  to  term  him 
in  a  weak  attempt  at  ridicule. 

Thus  appeared  the  new  regime  in  1829,  in  so  far 
as  its  Western  majority  and  base  of  support  were 
concerned.  How  the  conservative  East,  with  its  seri 
ous  doubts  about  democracy,  and  the  older  Southern 
leaders,  uneasy  lest  slavery  should  be  undermined, 
would  find  themselves  in  the  new  system  is  a  prob 
lem  which  our  next  chapters  must  seek  to  disclose. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

F.  J.  Turner's  The  Rise  of  the  New  West  (1906)  is  the  best  brief 
account  of  social  and  economic  conditions  in  the  United  States  just 
prior  to  1830.  J.  B.  McMaster's  History  of  the  United  State*. 


38          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

vol.  iv,  chap,  xxxin,  and  vol.  v,  chap.  XLV;  T.  H.  Clay's 
Henry  Clay,  in  American  Crises  biographies,  Theodore  Roosevelt's 
Life  of  Thomas  H.  Benton,  in  American  Statesmen  series,  and  Bas- 
sett's  Life  of  Andrew  Jackson,  already  cited,  give  the  principal 
facts  about  their  subjects.  T,  Flint's  History  and  Geography  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley  (1832) ;  J.  Hall's  Letters  from  the  West 
(1828)  and  Stastistics  of  the  West  (1836);  early  numbers  of  the 
American  Almanacs;  Peter  Cartwright's  The  Backwoods  Preacher 
(1860);  Alfred  Branson's  A  Western  Pioneer  (1858);  and  the 
various  denominational  histories  supply  the  needful  social  back 
ground  for  an  understanding  of  the  West.  Margaret  Bayard 
Smith's  The  First  Forty  Years  of  Washington  Society  (edited  by 
Gaillard  Hunt,  1906)  and  K.  W.  Colgrove's  Attitude  of  Congress 
toward  the  Pioneers  of  the  West,  in  Iowa  Journal  of  History  and 
Politics  (1910),  give  good  reports  of  Eastern  opinion  of  the  West. 
And  American  State  Papers,  on  Public  Lands  and  Indian  Affairs, 
are  excellent  for  treatment  of  land  and  Indian  problems. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE    EAST 

WHEN  the  West  under  the  guidance  and  tutelage 
of  Jackson,  Calhoun,  and  Benton  took  possession  of 
the  national  administration  in  1829,  the  older  and 
more  cultured  elements  and  classes  of  the  East  trem 
bled  for  their  country  and  for  the  institutions  they 
held  dear.  The  day  was  dark  to  John  Quincy  Adams 
and  his  followers,  not  only  because  they  had  been 
deprived  of  power,  but  because  the  rural  sections  of 
the  East,  the  towns  and  villages  which  had  been 
active  and  prosperous  from  1783  to  1807,  showed 
almost  as  many  signs  of  stagnation  and  premature 
decay  as  did  the  Old  Dominion,  where  public  men 
were  in  a  state  of  alarm  and  dismay.  For  fifteen 
years  the  highways  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania 
had  borne  their  burden  of  New  England  emigrants, 
laden  with  their  meager  belongings,  as  they  jour 
neyed  westward  to  the  Mohawk  country,  western 
Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  other  rising  communities 
of  the  West.  Between  1820  and  1830  the  popula 
tion  of  New  England  as  a  whole  increased  but 
slightly,  while  in  many  counties  of  New  Hampshire, 
Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut  there  was  an  actual 
decline.  Ambitious  young  men  or  discouraged  heads 
of  families  moved  northeastward  to  the  freer  lands 
of  Maine  or  to  the  Far  West,  without  seeming  love 
for  the  older  haunts  or  thought  for  the  fortunes  of 


40          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

the  Commonwealths  which  had  given  them  birth. 
And  New  York,  whose  population  increased  from 
1,400,000  in  1820  to  2,400,000  in  1840,  drew 
heavily  upon  her  eastern  neighbors ;  Pennsylvania, 
of  more  steady  habits,  drew  less  from  New  England 
than  her  immediate  neighbors,  though  both  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania  gave  freely  to  the  West.  There 
was  thus  a  steady  drift  of  the  people  from  their 
Eastern  homes  to  the  better  opportunities  of  the 
Middle  States,  while  from  these,  in  turn,  large  num 
bers  joined  the  more  courageous  who  were  never 
content  until  they  built  their  cabins  along  the  river 
borders  or  on  the  prairies  of  the  Northwest. 

The  total  population  of  the  country  in  1830  was 
nearly  13,000,000,  while  that  of  the  East,  including 
New  England,  the  Middle  States,  and  Maryland,  was 
a  little  more  than  6,000,000.  Between  1820  and 
1840  the  population  of  the  country  increased  from 
9,654,000  to  17,669,000  ;  that  of  the  East  increased 
from  4,850,000  to  7,350,000,  of  which  650,000  had 
come  from  Europe.  This  represented  a  growth  of 
only  fifty  per  cent  in  twenty  years.  But  the  rival 
South,  as  a  whole,  and  this  includes  Kentucky  and 
Missouri,  had  increased  her  population  during  the 
same  period  from  4,009,000  to  7,748,000,  a  growth 
of  ninety  per  cent ;  while  the  West,  as  a  whole,  in 
cluding  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri,  had 
grown  from  less  than  1,000,000  to  nearly  4,000,000. 
These  facts  were  significant  and  really  distressing  to 
conservative  politicians  ;  they  explain  the  jealous  riv 
alry  of  the  sections,  and  the  alliance  of  the  South 
and  West  foreboded  the  day  when  the  more  culti- 


THE   EAST  41 

vated  and  the  better  settled  region  of  the  young 
nation,  if  it  may  be  called  a  nation,  would  find  itself 
in  a  hopeless  minority. 

If  we  add  to  this  the  fact  that  the  lands  of  the  East 
were  the  poorest  in  the  Union  and  that  their  total 
area  was  less  than  175,000  square  miles,  while  those 
of  the  South  were  counted  rich  and  embraced  an  area 
of  880,000  square  miles,  we  shall  understand  how 
statesmen  who  listened  to  the  jubilations  of  the  Jack 
son  men  felt  and  envisaged  the  future  —  a  future 
which  the  South  alone  might  command ;  but  which  she 
would  certainly  dominate  if  she  could  only  succeed 
in  keeping  the  West  true  to  her  present  allegiance. 

But  economic  and  social  changes  were  taking  place 
which  gave  the  darkening  cloud  a  silver  lining.  On 
an  irregular  but  narrow  belt  of  land  stretching  from 
southeastern  Maine  to  the  Chesapeake  Bay  manufac 
turing  establishments  had  been  erected,  towns  and 
cities  had  sprung  into  existence  as  if  by  magic,  and  mi 
gration  from  the  poor  farms  and  the  hard  conditions 
of  New  England  country  life  was  also  turning  to  the 
mill  centers,  and  thus  giving  promise  of  a  new  East, 
whose  life  should  be  industrial  and  urban  like  that  of 
smoky,  grimy  Lancashire,  England.  The  older  com 
mercial  and  seafaring  interests,  which  had  given  the 
Federalists  their  power  and  made  the  American  flag 
known  on  every  sea,  were  now  giving  way  to  the 
vigorous  young  captains  of  industry  whose  mills  at 
Lowell,  Providence,  New  Haven,  New  York,  Phila 
delphia,  and  Baltimore  gave  employment  to  thousands 
of  people.  Much  of  the  money  which  had  made  the 
New  Englanders  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships  was  now 


42          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

invested  in  manufactures.  The  woolen  mills  of  the 
East  produced  in  1820  a  little  more  than  84,000,000 
worth  of  cloth,  the  cotton  mills,  $4,834,000  ;  but  in 
1830  the  yearly  manufactures  of  wool,  cotton,  and 
iron  were  estimated  by  the  Government  as  worth 
$58,500,000.  Yet  the  total  investment  in  these  enter 
prises  was  not  much  in  excess  of  $100,000,000.  In 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  York,  and  Penn 
sylvania  the  growth  had  been  miraculous,  and  the 
profits  were  enormous,  if  we  except  one  or  two  years 
for  the  woolen  interests. 

So  that  while  the  total  annual  crop  value  of  South 
ern  plantations  amounted  to  $40,000,000,  and  the 
per  capita  wealth  of  the  white  people  of  the  so-called 
black  belt  was  very  large,  the  returns  from  three  in 
dustries  located  in  a  much  narrower  industrial  belt 
of  the  East  were  more  than  a  third  greater.  The  tax 
able  value  of  the  slaves  who  produced  most  of  the 
cotton  and  tobacco  was  not  less  than  $1,000,000,000  ; 
the  total  investments  of  the  East  in  manufactures  of 
all  kinds  was  certainly  not  more  than  a  fourth  as  great 
as  that  in  slaves.  And  what  made  this  development 
the  more  significant  was  the  fact  that  nearly  all  that 
the  black  belt  produced  was  sold  in  Europe,  while 
nearly  all  that  the  industrial  belt  produced  was  sold 
to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  mostly  to  States 
which  were  not  engaged  in  manufacturing  at  all. 

A  portentous  revolution  was  taking  place.  Before 
1820  nearly  all  the  wool  of  the  country  had  been  made 
into  cloth  by  hand  in  the  homes  of  the  people,  and  the 
ratio  of  home  manufactures  to  population  was  about 
the  same  in  most  of  the  States.  Now  the  sheep- 


THE  EAST  43 

raisers  sold  their  wool  to  the  mill  men,  who  sold  the 
country  the  finished  product  and  whose  factories  were 
concentrated  in  a  small  district.  The  cotton  mills  had 
been  a  negligible  economic  factor  in  1812  ;  now  their 
owners  employed  a  capital  of  $30,000,000  to  $35,- 
000,000  and  supplied  work  for  70,000  laborers. 
From  the  farms  of  the  interior,  where  life  was  in  the 
open,  the  poorer  and  less  ambitious  elements  of  the 
population,  who  were  not  attracted  to  the  West, 
were  drawn  to  the  growing  industrial  towns,  where 
they  lived,  a  family  in  a  room,  worked  twelve  to 
fourteen  hours  a  day,  amidst  unsanitary  and  even  im 
moral  surroundings,  for  wages  which  ranged  from 
one  dollar  to  six  dollars  per  week.  The  cost  of  living 
was,  to  be  sure,  correspondingly  low  ;  but  when  the 
year  of  toil  for  men,  women,  and  children  of  all  ages 
was  told,  there  was  usually  an  unpaid  account  at  the 
company's  store,  and  the  chance  of  bettering  one's 
worldly  fortunes  appeared  almost  hopeless.  Emigra 
tion  to  the  West  was  the  only  escape,  and  the  diffi 
culties  of  such  an  escape,  the  cost  of  sustenance  for 
the  long  journey,  on  foot,  the  greater  cost  of  build 
ing  a  cabin  in  the  forest  and  maintaining  one's  fam 
ily  till  a  crop  could  be  harvested,  and  the  necessity 
of  buying  the  land  on  which  the  cabin  was  to  be 
raised,  made  the  undertaking  heroic.  Thus,  when  the 
mill  life  was  once  begun  it  was  seldom  deserted. 

Without  educational  advantages,  save  in  the  most 
rudimentary  way,  without  any  fair  prospect  of  ever 
becoming  independent  or  of  materially  improving 
their  status,  these  mill  workers  kept  up  the  daily 
round  of  labor,  earning  the  millions  which  were 


44          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

laying  the  foundations  of  a  new  and  greater  East, 
eventually  a  new  United  States,  and  voting,  in  so  far 
as  they  exercised  the  right  of  suffrage  at  all,  for  the 
cause  of  their  masters,  against  the  "  slave-drivers  " 
of  the  South  and  for  protection  to  manufactures  as 
a  means  of  defending  themselves  against  their  poorer 
brethren  of  Europe.  As  to  their  total  number,  we 
have  no  more  reliable  estimate  than  that  of  McMas- 
ter,  who  says  there  were  not  less  than  two  million 
operatives  in  all  lines  of  industry  in  1825.  Nobody 
thought  of  these  people  as  slaves ;  and  most  people 
thought  they  must  be  happy  to  escape  the  dull  life 
of  the  country,  and  that  fourteen  hours'  work  was  a 
normal  human  exercise.  A  worthless  father  who 
lived  on  the  labor  of  little  children  of  his  own  be 
getting  was  counted  lucky  to  have  children  to  work 
for  him  ;  and  the  girl  who  entered  the  primrose 
path  as  a  possible  way  of  escape  from  her  hard  sur 
roundings  was  then  as  now  promptly  ruled  out  of 
the  pale  of  human  sympathy  and  consigned  to  the 
lake  of  everlasting  fire  and  brimstone. 

Another  great  interest  had  grown  to  immense 
proportions  in  the  East  of  1830  —  the  financial. 
Beginning  with  the  flush  times  of  Hamilton's  leader 
ship,  the  financier  had  grown  in  power  and  influence, 
sometimes  purposely  organizing  a  monopolistic  con- 
trol  over  the  money  of  the  public,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Suffolk  Bank  of  Boston,  sometimes  mercilessly 
robbing  depositors,  as  in  the  notorious  defalcation 
of  the  Derby  Bank  of  Connecticut  in  1825,  until  it 
had  become  a  serious  national  problem  not  merely 
to  regulate  the  currency  of  the  country,  but  to 


THE   EAST  45 

curb  the  rapacity  of  those  who,  under  one  pretense 
or  another,  violated  the  laws  of  all  the  States  in 
order  to  heap  np  hasty  fortunes.  In  1815  there 
had  been  208  banks  in  the  country,  mainly  in  the 
Middle  States  and  New  England,  with  a  capital 
of  182,000,000;  at  the  end  of  the  year  1833  there 
were  502  banks  with  a  capital  of  8168,829,000.  At 
the  end  of  the  second  war  with  England,  there  were 
$17,000,000  of  specie  in  the  banks  ;  eighteen  years 
later,  when  the  capital  had  doubled,  loans  had 
greatly  increased,  and  notes  in  circulation  were 
161,000,000,  there  were  still  just  $17,000,000  of 
gold  and  silver  in  all  the  banks. 

The  business  of  the  East  naturally  tended  to  the 
concentration  of  the  financial  resources  of  the  coun 
try  within  her  towns,  but  the  location  of  414  of  the 
502  banks  of  the  country  in  the  narrow  section  un 
der  consideration  would  seem  to  indicate  something 
more  than  a  natural  tendency.  The  six  million  people 
of  the  East  enjoyed  three  times  as  many  banking 
facilities,  when  we  consider  the  amount  of  money 
in  circulation,  as  the  seven  million  Southerners  and 
Westerners.  New  York  alone  had  a  banking  capital 
of  $28,000,000,  Massachusetts  $21,000,000,  and 
the  per  capita  circulation  of  money  in  the  East  was 
nearly  $9,  while  that  of  the  West  was  $2.  To  him 
that  hath  shall  be  given  is  a  familiar  axiom  which 
seemed  doubly  true  of  the  United  States  at  the 
time  of  Jackson's  accession  to  power. 

All  signs  pointed  to  a  congestion  of  the  financial 
resources  of  the  whole  country  in  Philadelphia,  New 
York,  and  Boston.  The  great  National  Bank,  with 


46          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

its  135,000,000  capital  and  loans  of  140,000,000, 
was  located  in  Philadelphia ;  New  York  City  had 
not  so  strong  a  banking  system,  but  the  growth  of 
her  real  estate  values  was  $40,000,000  in  the  five 
years  preceding  1831 ;  and  the  tax  valuation  of  the 
property  of  Suffolk  County,  Massachusetts,  in  which 
Boston  was  located,  was  $86, 000, 000  as  against 
$208,000,000  for  the  whole  State. 

The  masters  of  this  region  were  reaching  out  for 
the  commerce  of  the  West  through  the  Erie  Canal, 
which  made  northern  and  central  Ohio  the  hinter 
land  of  New  York ;  through  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
Railroad  and  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal,  which 
were  aimed  at  western  Virginia  and  the  Ohio  Val 
ley.  The  shipping  interests  of  New  England  and 
New  York  did  the  same  for  the  South,  whose  mil 
lions  of  bales  of  cotton  all  went  north  or  to  Eu 
rope  in  eastern -made  and  eastern  -  owned  vessels. 
And  while  these  enterprising  leaders  sought  to 
control  the  commerce  of  the  country,  they  also 
knitted  together  their  own  towns  and  river  valleys 
by  canals  and  turnpikes.  Boston  and  New  Haven 
were  almost  united  by  canals  and  railroads  in  1830; 
the  Delaware  and  the  Susquehanna  were  paralleled 
far  into  the  interior  in  order  to  bring  the  produce  of 
the  country  to  the  manufacturing  centers.  And  a 
railway  connected  Philadelphia  with  the  rich  Sus 
quehanna  Basin,  whose  commerce  had  hitherto  been 
controlled  by  Baltimore.  Pittsburg  was  actually 
tied  to  the  East  before  1835  by  water  and  railroad 
routes.  Trade,  manufactures,  and  finance ;  railways, 
canals,  and  home  markets  were  the  great  subjects 


THE  EAST  47 

of  conversation  in  the  East,  just  as  cotton,  slaves, 
and  land  formed  the  trinity  of  Southern  thinking. 

The  men  who  owned  the  industrial  plants  and 
managed  the  large  banks  and  projected  the  ambi 
tious  railway  and  canal  systems,  the  stockholders 
and  the  officers,  the  factors  and  storekeepers,  were 
drawn  from  the  same  sturdy  New  England  and 
Middle  States  stock,  the  small  farmers  and  little 
merchants  who  had  composed  the  democracy  which 
had  fought  the  Revolution.  Retired  sea-captains 
and  owners  of  sailing-vessels  joined  the  new  regime 
as  profits  came  in  and  the  art  of  watering  stock  was 
understood.  Throughout  the  East,  from  Chesa 
peake  Bay  to  Augusta,  Maine,  wherever  there  were 
good  waterfalls,  great  brick  buildings  were  rising 
story  upon  story,  proclaiming  the  new  prosperity 
and  enticing  the  hordes  of  workers  so  necessary  to 
the  new  system.  The  old-fashioned  mansions  of  re 
tired  traders  or  prosperous  shipbuilders,  which  had 
so  long  adorned  the  hills  of  the  coast  towns,  were 
giving  way  to  the  larger  houses  of  the  captains  of 
industry  who  built  up  the  inland  towns  or  created 
the  suburbs  of  the  greater  cities. 

Like  the  planters  of  the  South,  with  their  two 
million  slaves,  these  able  and  prosperous  makers  of  a 
new  era  in  the  East  had  their  two  million  operatives, 
and  as  in  the  planting  districts,  the  working  day  was 
from  sun  to  sun.  Carrying  the  comparison  further, 
the  industrial  and  financial  region  was  relatively 
small,  embracing  much  less  of  the  area  of  the  country 
than  did  that  of  the  black  belt.1 

1  See  maps  of  tobacco  and  cotton  belts  on  pp.  133,  134. 


48          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

From  southeastern  Maine  to  Boston,  Providence, 
New  Haven,  New  York  City,  and  on  to  Baltimore, 
with  a  Western  extension  to  Pittsburg,  this  irregular, 
now  widening,  now  contracting,  strip  of  country  ex 
tended.  It  embraced  the  strategic  positions,  the  falls 
of  the  rivers,  the  places  whence  ships  could  sail  laden 
with  the  products  of  the  industries  or  return  with  the 
raw  materials  necessary  to  their  operation ;  it  in 
cluded  the  old  commercial  towns  where  the  surplus 
capital  of  the  East  had  been  collected  and  where  now 
gathered  the  populations  which  composed  the  dis 
tricts  whose  spokesmen  exerted  the  real  strength  of 
the  North  in  the  National  Congress.  It  was  this  artic 
ulate  East,  the  growing  power  of  industry  and  finance, 
the  promise  of  greater  prosperity  to  come,  which  drew 
to  it,  like  iron  filings  to  a  magnet,  the  talented  and 
the  ambitious  men  of  the  time,  just  as  the  black  belt 
was  the  articulate  part  of  the  South  for  which  men 
of  ability  and  influence  spoke  in  the  national  assem 
blies  which  gathered  from  year  to  year  in  Washington. 

But  the  older  mercantile  and  seafaring  interests 
sometimes  resisted  the  industrial  movement  and  made 
precarious  alliances  with  the  South  on  the  basis  of  a 
national  free-trade  policy.  The  great  Boston  mer 
chants  actually  turned  to  Hayne,  of  South  Carolina, 
in  1827,  to  represent  them  and  their  cause  in  Con 
gress.  The  Winslows,  Goddards,  and  Lees  who  thus 
appealed  to  a  Southern  Senator  were  representatives 
of  the  older  order,  of  the  same  declining  class  in  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  which  had  in  years  past  con 
trolled  affairs  in  the  East  and  made  alliances  with 
the  aristocratic  leaders  of  the  South.  In  a  hopeless 


50          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

minority  in  their  own  States  before  1830,  they  looked 
to  the  South  for  relief,  and  at  least  understood  the 
politics  of  the  planters.  Their  successors  composed 
the  nucleus  of  the  party  of  Gushing,  Everett,  and 
Winthrop  in  1860.  It  is  difficult  for  us  in  our  day  of 
great  things  to  understand  the  industrial  and  social 
revolution  of  the  decade  which  preceded  the  inaugu 
ration  of  the  first  Western  President,  and  it  was 
difficult  for  men  to  make  the  transition  from  the 
small  farmer  system  of  Jefferson's  day  to  the  indus 
trial  regime  of  1830  ;  many  good  people  were  broken 
in  the  process,  while  whole  classes  of  the  population 
exchanged  the  life  of  the  open  country  for  that  of  the 
crowded  and  unsanitary  towns,  exchanged  a  rude  and 
hard  independence  for  a  semi-servile  subjection. 

The  new  Eastern  regime  readily  enlisted  the  sup 
port  of  the  old  professional  classes.  The  clergy  and 
the  votaries  of  the  law,  always  doing  the  bidding  of 
the  strongest  in  society,  promptly  took  their  places 
in  the  system.  When  dignitaries  of  an  Eastern  town 
gradually  laid  aside  their  rough  farmers'  clothes  and 
put  on  the  smooth  garbs  of  directors  of  corporations 
or  financial  magnates,  the  legal  briefs  and  sermons 
underwent  a  similar  change.  Social  amenities  dis 
placed  Calvinistic  theology ;  dancing,  which  had  been  a 
crime  against  the  Church,  became  mere  frivolity  and 
^finally  an  innocent  pastime.  Leading  lawyers  ceased 
to  plead  in  petit  courts  to  inferior  magistrates,  and 
learned  to  devise  forms  of  contracts,  to  lobby  in  legis 
latures,  or  appear  with  the  great  Maryland  and  Vir 
ginia  practitioners  before  the  Federal  Supreme  Court. 

The  legal  profession  of  the  East  naturally  made 


THE  EAST  51 

common  cause  with  their  clients.  The  state  courts, 
already  accustomed  to  curb  the  democracy  of  the 
time  and  declare  public  enactments  unconstitutional, 
when  the  interests  of  property  required,  as  readily 
joined  the  new  standards.  The  careers  of  Justice 
Parsons  of  Massachusetts  and  Chancellor  Kent  of 
New  York,  to  whom  all  judges  and  lawyers  of  the 
time  looked  up  as  sources  of  inspiration,  illustrate  ad 
mirably  the  common  tendency.  Everywhere  in  the 
East  as  in  the  South  "  independent  "  judges  asserted 
the  power  to  declare  laws  unconstitutional. 

The  national  courts  had  undergone  the  same  evo 
lution,  except  that  they  had  met  with  violent  opposi 
tion  in  the  South  and  West.  In  many  decisions  from 
1792  to  1830  the  Federal  Supreme  Court  asserted 
its  authority  over  Congress,  the  President,  and  the 
States.  In  almost  all  of  these  instances  the  federal 
judges  found  the  heartiest  support  from  the  East. 
The  great  institution  over  which  Chief  Justice  Mar 
shall  presided  with  such  perfect  dignity,  and  which 
was  not  paralleled  anywhere  else  in  the  world,  lent 
its  support  to  the  interests  of  the  East.  If  the  consti 
tutionality  of  the  tariff  were  denied  by  irate  planters, 
Eastern  men  pointed  to  decisions  of  the  Federal  Su 
preme  Court ;  if  the  powers  of  the  General  Govern 
ment  under  which  the  industrial  or  ^financial  interests 
of  the  East  operated  were  questioned,  it  was  easy 
to  find  a  decision  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall  to  cover 
the  case.  Nothing  proved  more  fortunate  for  the  lead 
ers  of  the  industrial  revolution  than  the  almost  con 
stant  support  of  the  federal  courts  and  of  the  legal 
profession  as  a  whole. 


52          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

The  compact  social  life  of  the  industrial  towns  was 
still  further  reinforced  by  the  clergy.  In  the  shift 
from  a  stern  theology  to  an  easy-going  religious  phi 
losophy,  William  Ellery  Channing  was  a  conspicuous 
leader.  Harvard  had  already  become  a  Unitarian 
center,  and  in  1836  the  Transcendental  Club  was 
organized  in  Boston  with  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  a 
preacher  in  revolt  against  the  old  theology,  as  one  of 
its  leaders ;  high-toned  men,  whose  minds  revolted 
alike  against  the  old  Puritanism,  the  grosser  talk  of 
rates  of  exchange  and  the  building  of  common  road 
ways,  found  consolation  in  speculative  philosophy  and 
romantic  literature.  The  North  American  Review 
was  already  fifteen  years  old,  and  the  best  minds  of 
the  country  were  happy  to  have  their  thought  and 
inspirations  printed  in  its  staid  columns.  Boston 
was  a  state  of  mind  in  1830,  and  a  good  Methodist 
preacher  who  visited  the  city  a  little  later  lamented 
the  lapse  from  the  great  virtues  and  the  great  the 
ology  of  the  Mathers. 

But  outside  of  Boston  and  its  university  suburb, 
there  was  little  patience  with  a  new  religion  or  with 
a  theology  which  did  not  teach  the  world  the  total 
depravity  of  man  and  the  vengeance  of  an  angry 
Deity  consigning  his  wayward  children  to  everlast 
ing  perdition.  Southern  gentlemen  like  Calhoun  or 
Hayne  might  accept  the  mild  and  humane  God  of 
Channing,  but  not  the  farmers  of  the  rural  districts 
or  the  business  men  of  the  small  towns. 

If  Boston  cultivated  philosophy  and  religious  re 
form,  New  York  was  the  seat  of  a  literature  that 
was  read.  Washington  Irving,  the  author  of  the 


THE  EAST  53 

Sketch-Boole  and  Tales  of  a  Traveller,  was  just  re 
turning  from  a  long  and  triumphant  literary  sojourn 
in  Europe  to  make  his  home  on  the  Hudson.  James 
Fenimore  Cooper  was  publishing  his  Leather  /Stock 
ing  Tales,  which  have  made  the  hair  on  so  many 
boys'  heads  stand  on  end.  William  Cullen  Bryant 
was  making  the  New  York  Evening  Post  the  organ 
of  American  culture  and  setting  the  pace  for  the  bet 
ter  element  of  the  press.  In  Philadelphia,  Carey  and 
Lea  were  alternately  publishing  the  writings  of 
struggling  literary  lights  and  fiery  pamphlets  on  the 
tariff  and  internal  improvements.  In  1832  John 
Pendleton  Kennedy,  of  Maryland,  published  his 
Swallow  Barn,  a  novel  which  portrayed  the  easy 
going  life  of  the  Virginia  planters ;  and  in  Rich 
mond,  William  Wirt,  disgusted  with  Western  poli 
tics,  rested  on  his  laurels  as  the  author  of  the  British 
Spy  and  the  Life  of  Patrick  Henry.  To  match  the 
North  American  Review  the  Charleston  lovers  of 
literature  were  publishing  their  excellent  Southern 
Review.  Even  history  was  not  without  her  muses. 
Reverend  Jared  Sparks  was  editing  all  the  crudities 
of  grammar  and  errors  of  spelling  out  of  Washing 
ton's  fourteen  volumes  of  correspondence ;  George 
Ticknor,  a  young  professor  at  Harvard,  was  begin 
ning  the  work  which  was  to  culminate  in  his  famous 
History  of  Spanish  Literature  ;  and  George  Ban 
croft  was  writing  a  History  of  the  United  States 
which  was  to  win  him  international  fame  and  ulti 
mately  to  secure  him  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet  of  Presi 
dent  Polk. 

If  literature  and  history  were  beginning  to  thrive 


54          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

in  New  England  and  the  Middle  States,  painting 
and  sculpture  also  had  their  devotees.  Allston  and 
Greenough  had  won  laurels  in  Boston  ;  In  man  and 
Sully  were  making  portraits  in  Philadelphia  which 
well-to-do  Middle  States  lawyers  and  Southern  plant 
ers  liked  well  enough  to  pay  for  in  good  banknotes ; 
even  in  far-off  Kentucky  Joel  T.  Hart  was  making 
the  busts  of  great  American  politicians  on  which  his 
title  to  distinction  was  to  rest.  And  Charleston,  never 
outdone  in  ante-bellum  times,  encouraged  a  real 
genius  in  James  de  Veaux,  the  painter,  so  soon  to 
fall  a  victim  to  tuberculosis.  That  was  a  promising 
religious,  literary,  and  artistic  life,  which  kept  time 
to  the  looms  of  the  industrial  belt  or  idealized  the 
nascent  feudalism  of  the  South.  But  we  must  turn 
to  the  fierce  economic  and  political  struggles  about 
to  be  reopened  in  Washington  —  struggles  in  which 
Americans  of  that  day  as  well  as  of  this  always  take 
supreme  interest. 

The  change  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut 
from  a  defiant  particularism  and  an  uncompromising 
free-trade  policy,  during  the  short  years  of  1815  to 
1830,  to  a  positive  nationalism  and  emphatic  protec 
tive  program  parallels  exactly  the  change  at  the  same 
time  in  South  Carolina  from  nationalism  and  a  pro 
tective  tariff  to  a  strict  states-rights  and  an  unbend 
ing  free-trade  system.  If  Calhoun  turned  sharp  cor 
ners  in  those  years,  Webster  proved  equally  agile. 
The  whole  life  of  the  East  was  being  reconstructed, 
and  all  classes  were  adapting  themselves  to  the  new 
organization.  The  small  farmers,  allies  in  1804  of 
Thomas  Jefferson  and  his  up-country  democracy,  be- 


THE  EAST  55 

came  ancillary  to  the  industrial  towns  where  they 
found  markets  for  their  products ;  and  the  new  river 
and  canal  and  railroad  towns  were  but  the  recent 
creations  of  the  new  order.  With  the  exception  of  a 
few  remote  counties  and  certain  old-fashioned  mer 
chants,  all  New  England  and  the  Middle  States 
ranged  themselves  around  the  dominant  industrial 
masters  and  presented  an  almost  solid  front  to  the 
Southern  and  Western  combination  which  had  swept 
the  country  in  1828.  There  was  no  doubt  that  Adams, 
Webster,  and  Cky  would  renew  the  fight  in  time  to 
make  an  issue  in  1832. 

And  their  case  was  by  no  means  hopeless.  In  the 
electoral  college  of  1832  these  Northeastern  States 
would  cast  131  of  the  total  286  votes.  If  the  indus 
trial  forces  could  hold  their  communities  together  as 
the  West  had  learned  to  do,  and  regain  their  former 
hold  on  Ohio,  their  candidate  would  again  be  suc 
cessful.  Losing  the  Presidency,  they  would  still 
have,  after  the  apportionment  of  1831,  a  majority  of 
10  in  the  Federal  House  of  Representatives,  which 
would  guarantee  the  protective  policy  against  seri 
ous  modification.  And  the  moral  support  of  the  Su 
preme  Court  was  not  without  value.  Thus  if  the  new 
President  and  the  Senate  be  conceded,  the  popular 
branch  of  Congress  and  the  national  judiciary  would 
make  steady  bulwarks. 

If  there  were  sections  of  New  England,  like 
Maine,  or  of  the  Middle  States,  like  western  Penn 
sylvania,  whose  people  would  not  support  the  indus 
trial  program,  there  were  dominant  sections  of  the 
old  South,  like  eastern  Virginia  and  all  South  Caro- 


56          EXPANSION   AND  CONFLICT 

Una,  where  the  leaders  either  feared  or  hated  Jack, 
son.  Nor  did  all  the  West  love  the  South.  In  the 
States  which  bordered  the  Ohio  River  most  men  de 
manded  internal  improvements  at  national  expense, 
which  all  knew  the  South  could  not  grant.  With  the 
ablest  New  England  and  Middle  States  leaders  in  the 
Senate  and  House,  why  might  not  the  arrangement  of 
1 825  be  renewed  ?  It  was,  then,  with  every  expectation 
of  victory  in  1832  that  the  sanguine  Clay  came  back 
to  Congress  in  December,  1831 ;  even  John  Quincy 
Adams,  who  now  became  a  member  of  the  House, 
was  not  without  hope  that  the  ill-selected  Cabinet  of 
Jackson  would  go  to  pieces  and  that  a  "restoration  " 
would  follow  in  due  time.  Washington  was  to  be  the 
scene  of  still  another  conflict  of  the  sections  that 
would  threaten  the  very  existence  of  the  Union,  not 
yet  accustomed  to  the  idea  of  a  compact  nationality. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

The  best  sources  for  the  growth  of  the  various  industries  before 
1830  are  government  documents.  The  Report  on  Manufactures, 
Executive  Documents,  22d  Cong.,  1st  Sess.,  2  vols.,  is  a  rare  and 
valuable  work;  and  Executive  Documents,  34th  Cong.,  1st  Sess., 
vol.  4,  gives  the  statistics  of  manufactures  down  to  1850  by  States. 
Darby  and  Dwight's  New  Gazetteer  of  the  United  States  (1833),  and 
J.  L.  Bishop's  History  of  American  Manufactures  (1868),  are  useful 
if  sometimes  exasperating.  Miss  Katharine  Coman's  The  Indus 
trial  History  of  the  United  States  (1910)  is  the  best  account  for 
general  use.  J.  B.  McMaster's  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  v 
(1900),  and  F.  J.  Turner's  The  Rise  of  the  New  West  already  cited 
(1906),  are  always  serviceable.  For  a  cross-section  of  the  industrial 
revolution  in  New  England,  read  C.  F.  Adams's  Three  Episodes  of 
Massachusetts  History  (1903).  Davis  R.  Dewey's  Financial  History 
of  the  United  States  (1903)  is  standard;  and  A.  C.  McLaughlin's 
The  Court,  the  Constitution  and  Parties  (1912),  gives  the  best  account 


THE   EAST  57 

of  the  beginnings  of  judicial  supremacy,  while  W.  G.  Sumner's 
History  of  American  Banking  (1896)  tells  the  story  of  the  banks  by 
Sections.  The  American  Commonwealth  histories  are  serviceable 
for  the  individual  States.  For  the  biographies  of  leading  states 
men,  the  American  Statesmen  and  American  Crises  series  are  satis 
fying.  Intellectual  life  is  well  treated  in  W.  P.  Trent's  History  of 
American  Literature  (1903),  G.  W.  Sheldon's  American  Painters 
(1899),  and  Lorado  Taft's  History  of  American  Sculpture  (1903). 


CHAPTER   IV 

CONFLICT    AND    COMPROMISE 

THE  man  against  whom  these  powerful  leaders  were 
directing  all  their  energies  was  still  counted  an  ama 
teur  in  politics,  irascible  and  indiscreet.  He  was 
laughed  at  in  the  cities  as  a  boor  and  condemned  in 
New  England  as  an  ignoramus,  though  Harvard  Col 
lege,  under  some  strange  inspiration,  was  soon  to 
award  him  the  doctorate  of  laws.  Having  come  to 
power  by  means  of  a  combination  of  South  and  West, 
Jackson  had  found  his  followers  divided  and  some 
what  unmanageable.  Half  the  members  of  his  Cabi 
net,  S.  D.  Ingham,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ;  John 
Branch,  Secretary  of  the  Navy ;  and  John  M.  Berrien, 
Attorney-General,  looked  to  Calhoim  as  their  chief, 
while  the  others,  Martin  Van  Buren  ;  Secretary  of 
State,  John  H.  Eaton,  Secretary  of  War,  and  Wil 
liam  T.  Barry,  the  Postmaster-General,  distrusted 
their  colleagues  and  clung  to  the  President.  It  was 
natural,  therefore,  that  cabinet  meetings  should  be 
embarrassing  and  that  a  nondescript  group  of  clerks 
and  newspaper  editors,  William  B.  Lewis,  Frank  P. 
Blair,  and  Amos  Kendall,  all  from  the  West,  should 
become  a  sort  of  closet  cabinet  with  whom  Jackson 
should  take  council. 

Moreover,  Jackson  increased  his  difficulties  by 
gratifying  the  Western  demand  that  a  clean  sweep 
in  the  offices  should  he  made.  New  and  untried  men 


CONFLICT  AND  COMPROMISE        59 

and  hot-headed  partisans  were  placed  in  the  thou 
sands  of  vacancies  created  by  removals.  Such  a 
change  in  the  civil  and  subordinate  offices  of  the 
Government  had  never  before  been  made,  and  Wash 
ington  society,  which  always  takes  a  hearty  interest 
in  the  offices,  was  not  slow  to  manifest  its  contempt 
for  "  the  man  of  the  people  "  and  his  "  hungry  "  fol 
lowers.  But  there  was  still  another  trouble.  Secretary 
Eaton  had  married  the  daughter  of  a  tavern-keeper ; 
her  reputation  was  unsavory  and  notorious.  She  now 
proposed  to  enter  Washington  social  life  as  a  leader, 
and  Jackson  gave  her  his  blessing.  The  wives  of  the 
members  of  the  Cabinet  refused  to  recognize  Mrs. 

o 

Eaton,  and  a  social  war  followed,  in  which  President, 
preachers  to  the  various  local  churches,  and  news 
paper  editors  had  their  say.  Division  in  the  Cabinet, 
bitter  enmity  between  certain  leaders  of  the  party, 
and  the  greater  war  between  the  powerful  industrial 
and  agricultural  sections  of  the  country  gave  every 
assurance  that  a  storm  was  approaching. 

To  postpone  the  evil  day  Jackson  resorted  to  eva 
sions  and  oracular  utterances  on  the  tariff  and  the 
other  serious  problems  in  all  his  public  papers  and 
speeches.  But  the  South  pressed  every  day  its  free- 
trade  program ;  the  East  demanded  at  least  a  con 
tinuation  of  the  measure  of  protection  already  ac 
corded  to  its  interests ;  and  the  West,  really  needing 
roadways  and  canals,  insisted  on  the  building  of  these 
improvements  and  on  the  opening  of  the  public  lands 
to  settlement  on  easier  terms.  If  the  President  yielded 
to  any  of  these  groups,  his  administration  was  likely 
to  fail.  He  naturally  sought  to  shift  the  issue  and 


60          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

felt  the  public  pulse  on  the  question  of  a  renewal  oi 
the  charter  of  the  National  Bank,  which  was  not  to 
expire  till  1836.  This  was  looking  to  the  future ; 
but  on  this  subject  it  was  possible  to  continue  the 
union  of  South  and  West.  The  first  annual  message, 
in  which  the  Bank  was  discussed,  aroused  at  once 
the  great  financial  interests,  and  they  set  in  motion 
influences  which  speedily  isolated  the  President  and 
secured  to  the  Bank  the  enthusiastic  support  of  a 
Cabinet,  divided  on  everything  else,  and  of  a  major 
ity  of  both  houses  of  Congress.  Instead  of  preventing 
a  disruption  of  his  party,  Jackson  had  only  hastened 
the  event. 

The  people  of  South  Carolina,  supported  as  they 
hoped  by  most  of  the  South,  pressed  through  Cal- 
honn,  during  the  winter  of  1828-29  and  again  in 
1829-30,  for  some  assurance  that  the  President 
would  aid  them  in  their  attack  upon  the  protective 
policy  of  the  Government,  threatening  state  inter 
vention  in  case  of  refusal.  The  East  was  no  less  in 
sistent  that  nothing  should  be  done.  Congress  seemed 
to  be  completely  deadlocked.  Under  these  circum 
stances  Senator  Foote,  of  Connecticut,  voicing  the 
fears  of  his  section,  introduced  December  29,  1829, 
his  famous  resolution  which  contemplated  the  dis 
continuance  of  the  federal  land  sales  and  the  sub 
stantial  curbing  of  the  growing  West.  It  was  a  blow 
at  Benton  and  Jackson  which  was  at  once  accepted 
by  all  the  West  as  a  challenge.  The  representatives 
of  all  three  sections  were  deeply  interested.  Benton 
took  the  lead  in  the  discussion  which  followed,  and 
he  urged  once  more  his  preemption  and  graduation 


CONFLICT  AND  COMPROMISE         61 

bills.  In  the  former  he  would  guarantee  the  prior 
claims  of  squatters  on  lands  they  had  already  unlaw 
fully  taken  up  ;  in  the  latter  he  meant  to  regulate 
the  price  of  public  lands  according  to  quality  and 
location.  In  both  the  object  was  to  make  the  way 
of  the  pioneer  easy ;  and  the  West  supported  him 
solidly.  Whether  the  South  would  keep  its  tacit 
pledges  in  the  face  of  Jackson's  non-committal  atti 
tude  on  the  tariff  was  the  query  of  all  until  Playne,  an 
intimate  friend  of  Calhoun  and  the  recognized  spokes 
man  of  his  section,  arose  on  January  19,  1830,  and 
took  the  strongest  ground  on  behalf  of  Benton  and 
the  West,  and  attacked  the  East  for  its  long-con 
tinued  resistance  to  westward  pxpa.nsion.  The  next 
day  Webster  made  reply,  and  the  debate  between 
the  two  representative  men  continued  to  the  end  of  the 
month.  The  importance  to  the  present-day  reader  of 
this  discussion  consists  in  the  revelation  of  the  di 
rectly  opposing  and  hostile  attitudes  of  South  and 
East  on  the  great  problems  then  before  the  country  : 
(1)  the  South  would  support  the  West  in  its  policy 
of  easy  lands  and  rapid  development ;  the  East  would 
resist  that  policy  ;  (2)  the  East  would  appeal  to  the! 
nationalist  sentiment  of  the  interior  and  the  West 
on  behalf  of  its  program  of  protection  to  industry, 
while  the  South  would  resist  that  program  even  to 
the  extent  of  declaring  national  tariff  laws  null  and 
void.  Hayne  and  Benton  showed  in  their  speeches 
the  substantial  solidarity  of  the  alliance  of  South  and 
West.  Webster  undertook  to  break  that  alliance  by 
his  powerful  appeal  to  the  feelings  of  Western  men 
who  loved  the  Union,  which  the  New  Englander 


62          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

sought  to  show  to  be  in  especial  danger.  What  was 
really  on  trial  was  the  American  system,  the  Tariff 
of  1828.  It  was  a  serious  national  crisis,  as  Calhoun 
wrote  in  May  following :  "  The  times  are  perilous 
beyond  any  that  I  have  ever  witnessed ;  all  the  great 
interests  of  the  country  are  coining  into  conflict." 
The  protectionists  thought  they  must  control  the 
country  or  the  Union  would  be  worth  little  to  them  ; 
the  Southern  free  traders  insisted  upon  the  mastery 
of  the  Government  or  else  they  would  have  a  quiet 
dissolution  of  the  Confederation  ;  while  the  Western 
men  must  have  freer  control  of  the  public  lands  and 
more  immigrants  or  their  sturdy  nationalism  would 
rapidly  disappear. 

Having  failed  for  the  moment  to  rally  the  leaders 
of  his  disintegrating  party  on  the  Bank  issue,  Jack 
son  and  his  intimate  advisers  decided  that  above  all 
things  it  was  necessary  for  the  old  hero  to  stand 
again  for  the  Presidency  in  the  next  election.  Van 
Buren,  who  had  been  steadily  growing  in  the  esti 
mation  of  Jackson,  while  Calhoun  had  been  losing 
ground,  was  the  foremost  to  urge  a  second  term  de 
spite  the  understanding  and  the  public  promises  that 
Jackson  was  to  hold  office  only  one  term.  Amos 
Kendall  and  William  B.  Lewis  supported  his  view 
heartily,  fearing  as  they  did  that  Henry  Clay  would 
otherwise  be  the  next  President.  At  the  dinner  on 
Jefferson  Day,  April  13,  1830,  for  which  elaborate 
preparations  had  been  made,  the  President  chose 
to  give  expression  to  more  decided  opinions  than  had 
been  customary  during  his  first  year  in  office.  His 
toast,  "  The  Union,  it  must  be  preserved,"  was  akin 


CONFLICT  AND  COMPROMISE         63 

to  the  utterances  of  Webster  in  the  debate  with 
Hayne.  It  was  plain  to  the  South  that  he  would  not 
longer  support  their  contentions,  that  he  would  appeal 
to  the  same  nationalist  sentiment  which  had  been 
shown  to  exist  by  the  speeches  of  the  great  New 
England  orator.  The  cause  of  the  Southern  radi 
cals  was  lost  in  so  far  as  it  depended  on  the  Pres 
ident,  and,  moreover,  the  arrangement  whereby 
Calhoun  was  to  succeed  Jackson  was  dissolved. 
South  Carolina,  so  long  a  leader  in  public  life,  was 
isolated. 

Meanwhile  the  friends  of  Clay  and  the  devotees  of 
the  tariff  had  prepared  an  internal  improvements 
measure  which  was  drawn  so  that  the  appropriation 
would  apply  to  purposes  wholly  within  the  State  of 
Kentucky.  The  Maysville  Road  Bill  proposed  to 
build  a  national  highway  from  Maysville  on  the  Ohio 
to  Lexington,  Clay's  home,  and  it  was  drawn  in 
order  to  compel  the  President  to  exercise  his  right 
of  veto  on  a  proposition  in  which  the  West  was  in 
terested,  and  thus  break  down  his  popularity  in  that 
region.  The  proposed  law  came  to  him  in  May.  Van 
Buren  had  been  sounding  public  opinion  in  the 
Middle  States,  and  with  some  hesitation  he  advised 
a  veto.  The  President  was  of  the  same  mind,  and  a 
vigorous  veto  message  was  sent  to  Congress.  To  the 
dismay  of  the  tariff  men,  the  country  approved 
heartily,  the  West  giving  every  evidence  of  its  con 
tinued  faith  in  the  Executive.  The  atmosphere  in 
Washington  began  to  clear  up  ;  it  was  plain  that  a 
reorganization  of  the  Cabinet  must  ensue,  and  that 
the  lower  South,  as  yet  in  sympathy  with  the  stern 


64          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

anti-tariff  policy  of  Calhoun,  must  be  won  away  from 
the  South  Carolinian.  It  seemed  that  the  West 
would  support  the  President  even  if  it  were  called 
upon  to  give  up  something  that  was  held  to  be  very 
important. 

In  due  time  William  B.  Lewis  produced  a  letter 
from  William  H.  Crawford  which  showed,  what 
Jackson  must  have  known  since  the  summer  of  1828, 
that  Calhoun  had  not  been  the  President's  defender 
in  1818,  when  he  was  threatened  with  court-martial 
for  his  conduct  during  the  Seminole  War.  Jackson 
now  made  an  issue  of  this,  and  welcomed  a  contro 
versy  with  the  man  who  had  done  most  to  elevate 
him  to  the  Presidency.  Mrs.  Eaton  also  became  a 
more  important  character,  and  the  attitude  of  the 
families  of  other  members  of  the  Cabinet  were  made 
subjects  of  official  discussion  and  displeasure.  Cal- 
houii's  friends  were  commanded  to  receive  her  into 
their  circle  or  take  the  consequences.  When  these 
refused,  it  seemed  that  this  tempest  in  a  teapot  was 
about  to  become  a  grave  matter  of  state.  None  knew 
better  than  Jackson  and  Calhoun  that  other  and 
deeper  causes  were  forcing  the  disruption  of  the 
party  of  1828,  the  alliance  which  had  driven  Adams 
and  Clay  from  office. 

Convinced  that  Van  Buren  had  been  the  marplot 
of  the  Administration,  Calhoun  attacked  him  publicly, 
and  all  the  world  saw  what  some  astute  minds  had 
long  seen,  that  the  two  wings  of  the  party  in  power 
were  irreconcilable  enemies.  Congress  adjourned  in 
March,  1831,  and  in  April  the  President  demanded 
the  resignations  of  all  the  friends  of  the  Vice-Presi- 


CONFLICT  AND  COMPROMISE         65 

dent  in  the  Cabinet.  Calhoun  and  Hayne  returned 
sadly  to  their  constituents  to  advise  actual  resistance 
to  the  tariff,  since  both  the  President  — "  an  un 
grateful  son  of  Carolina" —  and  Congress  had,  during 
two  years,  refused  all  relief  to  the  suffering  planters. 
Not  one  of  the  problems,  the  solution  of  which  had 
been  the  purpose  of  Jackson's  election,  had  been  set 
tled  or  seriously  attacked.  The  East  had  defeated 
Benton's  land  program  ;  the  President  had  refused 
to  take  up  the  tariff ;  and  internal  improvements  as 
a  national  policy  had  only  been  toyed  with  in  the 
Maysville  Bill.  As  Calhoun  had  said,  all  the  great 
interests  of  the  country  had  come  into  conflict,  and 
even  the  most  resolute  of  men  knew  not  how  to  pro 
ceed. 

But  Jackson  gathered  about  him  a  new  official 
family  who  were  supposed  to  owe  no  double  alle 
giance.  Edward  Livingston,  of  Louisiana,  protec 
tionist,  became  Secretary  of  State  in  place  of  Van 
Buren,  who  had  resigned  for  appearance'  sake ;  Louis 
McLane,  of  Delaware,  a  conservative  party  leader  of 
protectionist  views,  was  made  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury  ;  while  Roger  B.  Taney,  a  former  Federalist  of 
Maryland,  became  Attorney-General.  Lewis  Cass, 
Secretary  of  War,  was  the  only  distinctly  Western 
man  in  this  new  body.  Jackson  seems  to  have  ex 
pected  to  make  the  Bank  question  the  great  issue 
between  his  party  and  that  of  Clay,  but  the  new  Cabi 
net  soon  proved  as  strongly  pro-Bank  as  the  old  one 
had  been,  and  he  must  still  rely  on  the  "  kitchen 
council"  for  support  in  that  direction. 

The  initiative  in  the  great  sectional  struggle  which 


66          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

all  foresaw  was  left  to  South  Carolina,  but  the  men 
of  that  planter  Commonwealth  refused  to  throw  dis 
cretion  to  the  winds.  The  price  of  cotton  was  falling 
and  the  tribute  to  the  manufacturer  under  the  law  of 
1828  seemed  to  be  more  burdensome  than  ever  ;  yet  it 
might  be  well  to  try  Congress  again.  The  new  Con 
gress,  which  would  assemble  in  December,  1831, 
might  give  relief.  This  was  Calhoun's  last  recourse ; 
if  it  failed  nullification  must  follow. 

When  the  next  Congress  assembled,  Clay  was  in 
the  Senate  and  John  Quincy  Adams,  his  former  ally, 
was  just  beginning  his  long  career  as  a  member  of  the 
House.  Webster  and  the  other  New  England  tariff 
advocates  were  there,  and  as  unbending  as  the  South 
erners  themselves.  The  President  sent  in  a  non-com 
mittal  message  on  the  burning  question,  and  even  on 
his  favorite  Bank  problem  he  showed  signs  of  yield 
ing.  Clay  took  the  message  as  preliminary  to  sur 
render,  and  his  proverbial  boldness  rapidly  grew  to 
arrogance.  On  the  tariff,  on  the  Bank,  and  on  the 
proposed  nullification  problems,  he  would  give  the 
deciding  word  and  that  word  was  defiance. 

When,  therefore,  the  cotton  and  tobacco  interests 
presented  once  more  their  demand  for  immediate 
downward  revision  of  the  tariff,  Clay  and  his  more 
ardent  protectionists  brushed  aside  the  cautious 
Adams  and  defied  "  the  South,  the  Democratic  party, 
and  the  Devil."  The  revision  of  the  tariff  which  was 
made  in  1832  was  no  revision,  save  in  a  few  unim 
portant  schedules  in  which  the  planters  were  not  in 
terested  ;  but  the  vote  on  this  measure  showed  a 
curious  combination  of  the  Jackson  and  the  Clay  poli- 


Longitude        West 


The  Vote  in  the 

House  of  Representatives 

on  the  Tariff  of  1832 

In  Eastern  and  Western  States 

SCALE  OF  MILES 


Against  the  Bill 
X  =  denotes  Not  Voting 

Influence  of  Adams,  friends  in  the  East 

tended  to  divide  the  Protectionists; 

and  the  Jackson  leaders  of  the  West 

seehi  to  have  followed  "Instructions" 

from  the  White  House. 


This  map  was  drawn  from  data  kindly  furnished  by  the  - 
Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington,  D.  C. 


CONFLICT  AND  COMPROMISE         67 

ticians  in  the  West  and  considerable  indifference  in 
New  England,  as  the  accompanying*  map  shows. 
Having  challenged  Calhoun  to  do  his  worst,  Clay 
now  pressed  upon  Jackson  the  question  of  renewing 
the  Bank  charter.  Under  his  instructions  the  presi 
dent  of  the  Bank,  Nicholas  Biddle,  a  very  able  man, 
hitherto  inclining  to  settle  matters  with  Jackson  and 
his  friendly  advisers,  offered  a  memorial  for  a  re- 
charter.  That  is,  the  Bank  men  thought  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States  was  losing  ground  and 
they  would  take  their  chances  with  the  party  of  the 
future.  The  Maysville  veto  was  thought  to  have 
weakened  Jackson ;  he  had  lost  the  support  of  Cal 
houn  and  had  been  compelled  to  reorganize  his  Cabi 
net;  on  the  tariff  he  had  no  opinions,  and  he  had 
done  nothing  to  weld  to  him  the  Westerners.  It 
seemed  a  very  simple  matter,  with  the  East  behind 
the  brilliant  Kentucky  leader,  to  make  the  American 
System  the  law  of  the  land  and  to  drive  the  Goths 
and  Vandals  from  the  capital. 

Mr.  Clay  had  been  nominated  for  the  Presidency 
by  an  enthusiastic  convention  of  his  followers  in 
December,  1831 ;  and  his  friend  William  Wirt  had 
also  been  nominated  three  months  earlier  by  the 
Anti-Masons,  who,  it  was  supposed,  would  draw 
supporters  from  the  Democrats,  especially  in  Vir 
ginia,  where  Jackson  had  never  won  the  approval  of 
the  ablest  leaders.  Never  did  the  outlook  of  a  politi 
cal  party  seem  so  bright  as  when  the  plans  of  the 
tariff  and  Bank  men  were  being  laid  in  the  spring 
of  1832.  John  Sargent,  one  of  the  directors  of  the 
Bank  and  brother-in-law  of  Henry  A.  Wise,  a  shrewd 


68          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

politician  of  Virginia,  was  made  candidate  for  the 
Vice-Presidency  ;  a  large  majority  of  the  Senate  was 
committed  to  the  renewal  of  the  charter,  —  even  the 
Calhoun  men  agreed  as  to  this,  —  and  in  the  House 
John  Quincy  Adams  and  George  McDuffie  led  a 
decided  majority  in  the  same  direction.  All  the  in 
dustrial  forces  of  the  country  were  enlisted  and  well 
organized.  If  there  was  any  doubt  that  the  old  hero 
would  be  reflected,  there  was  none  that  the  Bank 
and  the  tariff  groups  would  retain  control  of  Con 
gress. 

If  Jackson  was  less  confident  than  his  opponents, 
he  was  not  afraid.  The  effects  of  his  "Union,  it- 
must-be-preserved  "  speech  were  becoming  evident ; 
he  gradually  came  to  stand  for  the  budding  nation 
ality  among  the  self-seeking  groups  who  would  have 
their  way  or  break  up  the  Confederation.  With  the 
large  majority  of  the  up-country  of  the  Middle  States 
and  South  in  favor  of  a  tariff,  even  a  high  tariff,  he 
promptly  accepted  the  proposed  revision.  Already 
nominated  by  many  of  the  States,  his  friends  had  no 
difficulty  in  securing  him  a  unanimous  renomination 
from  the  Democratic  National  Convention  which 
met  in  Baltimore  late  in  May,  1832.  Meanwhile 
Van  Buren  had  been  appointed  Minister  to  England. 
After  reaching  his  post,  the  Senate,  to  gratify  Cal 
houn  as  well  as  strike  at  the  President,  rejected  the 
nomination.  The  humiliated  minister  was  now  nom 
inated  Vice-President  and  plainly  marked  by  Jack 
son  as  his  successor. 

When  the  votes  of  both  houses  were  shown  to  be 
decidedly  for  a  continuation  of  the  protective  system 


CONFLICT  AND  COMPROMISE        69 

as  enacted  in  1828,  Calhoun  and  the  planter  party 
gave  every  assurance  that  South  Carolina,  at  least, 
would  resist.  The  President  gave  out  no  indications 
of  what  his  attitude  would  be,  but  the  extreme 
Southerners  could  not  expect  that  Jackson  would 
support  their  contentions ;  nor  could  they  think 
Clay,  if  elected,  would  yield  the  very  base  of  the 
system  on  which  he  proposed  to  stand  as  President. 
But  as  the  tariff  bill  came  to  its  final  reading,  it  was 
seen  that  even  New  England  hesitated,  and  many 
voted  against  the  measure  ;  many  districts  of  the 
Southern  up-country  gave  their  votes  for  the  pro 
posed  law.  In  the  West  most  men  favored  the  bill. 
The  tariff  was,  therefore,  a  local  issue,  and  the  test 
must  come  on  the  Bank.  The  bill  for  a  recharter  of 
the  National  Bank  reached  the  President  on  July  4. 
It  was  considered  most  carefully,  and  doubtless  the 
desperate  situation  of  the  Administration  was  duly 
canvassed.  With  every  evidence  of  a  strong  South 
ern  secession  from  his  party,  with  Clay  and  Webster 
leading  the  solid  ranks  of  the  East,  it  did  seem  that 
Jackson  would  fail  if  he  vetoed  the  bill  passed  by 
great  majorities  in  both  Senate  and  House. 

On  July  10  the  veto  message  went  to  Congress. 
Its  contention  about  the  constitutionality  of  the 
Bank  was  not  important,  for  it  was  not  a  question 
of  what  was  constitutional,  but  of  sheer  power.  The 
majority  of  the  votes  in  the  coining  election  was 
what  each  side  sought.  Jackson  appealed  to  the 
West  and  South,  urging  that  the  Bank  was  a  sec 
tional  institution  constantly  drawing  money  to  the 
big  cities  of  the  East,  or  worse  still,  sending  it  to 


70          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

England;  that  it  was  a  monopoly  which  had  given 
millions  of  the  people's  money  to  a  few  men,  and  that 
it  was  then  proposed  to  continue  that  monopoly.  So 
certain  were  Clay  and  Biddle  that  they  would  defeat 
the  President  that  they  circulated  at  the  expense  of 
the  Bank  thirty  thousand  copies  of  this  remarkable 
document.  Biddle  declared  that  Jackson  was  like 
"a  chained  panther,  biting  the  bars  of  his  cage." 
Webster  and  John  Quincy  Adams,  taking  counsel 
of  their  hopes,  declared  that  the  old  man  in  the 
White  House  was  in  his  dotage  and  at  the  end  of 
his  career. 

A  remarkable  campaign  ensued.  While  South 
Carolina  prepared  to  put  into  effect  its  remedy  of 
state  intervention,  the  West  and  the  lower  South 
united,  as  in  1828,  against  the  East.  The  guberna 
torial  contest  in  Kentucky,  which  came  in  August, 
showed  that  Clay  had  not  regained  his  former  hold 
on  that  State.  From  midsummer  to  November  every 
effort  was  made  to  break  the  power  of  Jackson,  but 
to  no  avail.  Without  the  planter  support  of  the 
older  South  the  President  proved  stronger  than  he 
had  been  four  years  before  with  it ;  the  plain  people 
were  now  more  of  a  unit  than  they  had  ever  been 
before,  though  many  of  their  number  still  voted  for 
the  industrial  or  planter  interests.  The  outcome  sur 
prised  all  parties.  Jackson  received  219  electoral 
votes,  while  Clay  received  only  49.  The  popular 
majority  over  all  other  candidates,  including  Wil 
liam  Wirt  and  John  Floyd,  for  whom  the  Calhoun 
party  of  South  Carolina  cast  its  vote,  was  more  than 
125,000.  No  President  has  since  received  such  a 


CONFLICT  AND  COMPROMISE         71 

large  proportion  of  the  suffrages  of  the  people.  Only 
one  Western  State,  Kentucky,  supported  Henry 
Clay;  while  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  York 
gave  Jackson  larger  majorities  than  ever.  The  alli 
ance  of  the  West  and  the  up-country  held  together 
iii  spite  of  the  untoward  circumstances. 

The  significance  of  the  election  was  that  the  Pres 
ident  could  rely  upon  the  people  in  a  fight  with 
Congress ;  it  was  the  first  appeal  to  the  country  made 
over  the  heads  of  the  national  legislature.  To  this 
triumphant  President,  Calhoun  and  his  ardent  nul- 
lifiers  must  refer  their  case ;  the  Bank  would  also 
have  to  reckon  with  a  much  stronger  man  than  its 
spokesmen  had  contemplated. 

Without  awaiting  the  results  of  the  election,  Cal 
houn,  Hayne,  and  their  allies  called  South  Carolina 
into  special  convention  to  consider  the  state  of  the 
Union.  The  nullification  program  was  carried  by  safe 
majorities,  despite  the  most  strenuous  resistance  on 
the  part  of  the  minority  who  called  themselves 
Unionists.  South  Carolina  now  formally  declared  the 
tariff  laws  of  the  United  States  suspended  after 
February  1,  1833,  unless  the  Federal  Government 
gave  some  relief  ;  and  it  was  farther  declared  that  in 
case  no  relief  were  accorded,  and  the  national  author 
ity  should  be  enforced  within  the  boundaries  of  their 
State,  war  would  immediately  ensue.  The  new  gov 
ernor,  James  Hamilton,  and  the  legislature,  which 
might  be  called  into  extra  session  at  any  time,  were 
authorized  to  call  out  the  militia,  purchase  arms, 
and  organize  for  the  conflict. 

Meanwhile  Jackson  had  been  preparing  for  the 


72          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

contest  in  the  Southwest.  In  1827-28  all  the  legis 
latures  of  that  region  had  declared  the  protective 
tariff  unconstitutional  and  some  had  threatened  se 
cession.  But  after  the  election  of  1828  these  same 
legislatures  refused  to  concur  in  the  doctrines  of  nul 
lification  which  South  Carolina  submitted  to  them. 
The  situation  had  changed.  John  Quincy  Adams,  the 
New  Englander,  was  President  in  1828  ;  Andrew 
Jackson,  the  Westerner  and  the  most  popular  man  in 
the  country,  was  at  the  head  of  the  Union  in  1832. 
Besides,  Jackson  was  already  moving  the  Indians 
from  the  cotton  lands,  going  so  far  as  to  acquiesce 
in  the  flagrant  nullification  of  the  federal  law  by 
the  Georgia  governor  and  legislature.  The  decision 
of  the  Supreme  Court  in  favor  of  the  Cherokees,  who 
refused  to  surrender  their  lands,  was  publicly  flouted 
by  the  President.  It  was  plain  that  the  planters  of 
the  Southwest  would  get  what  they  wanted  even 
if  they  had  to  violate  treaties  of  the  Federal  Govern 
ment.  They  refused  to  sustain  South  Carolina.  Had 
not  the  President  carried  every  county  in  Alabama 
and  Mississippi  in  the  recent  election  ? 

And  in  the  older  South  the  anti-national  feelin^ 

o 

had  wonderfully  cooled,  since  1828.  North  Carolina 
reversed  her  attitude  ;  Tennessee  would  not  consider 
Calhoun's  plan  of  bringing  the  Union  to  terms.  In 
Virginia  the  tobacco  counties  of  the  Piedmont  sec 
tion  united  with  the  tidewater  counties  and  made  a 
show  of  supporting  South  Carolina.  New  England 
men  who  had  as  recently  as  1820  declared  the  protec 
tive  system  unconstitutional  had  no  thought  of  main 
taining  such  a  doctrine  when  advocated  by  Calhoun. 


CONFLICT  AND   COMPROMISE         73 

Thus,  instead  of  a  solid  group  of  planter  States, 
South  Carolina's  proposed  national  referendum  met 
with  almost  unanimous  opposition.  Jackson  had  un 
dermined  the  party  of  Calhoim,  which  at  the  time  of 
the  break-up  of  the  Cabinet  in  1831  seemed  more 
powerful  in  the  South  than  any  other.  Jackson  and 
Van  Buren  had  proved  to  be  master  politicians,  and 
when  Congress  met  for  the  short  session  in  Decem 
ber,  1832,  it  was  plain  that  Calhoun  was  practically 
alone  and  that  the  President  would  have  to  deal  with 
only  one  recalcitrant  State. 

From  this  vantage-ground,  Jackson  issued  his 
proclamation  of  December  10,  in  which  he  plainly 
told  South  Carolina  that  the  federal  laws  would  be 
enforced  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  and  that,  fur 
thermore,  the  Union  was  an  indissoluble  nation,  as 
Webster  and  himself  had  declared  ;  and  he  at  the 
same  time  urged  upon  Congress  the  so-called  "  Force 
Bill,"  granting  him  full  power  to  punish  all  infrac 
tions  of  the  national  revenue  laws.  And  now  for  the 
first  time  he  expressed  his  real  view  that  the  tariff 
was  unjust.  The  Verplanck  Bill  to  reduce  the  tariff 
to  a  twenty-five  per  cent  basis  was  the  President's 
confession  that  Calhoun  had  been  right.  The  two 
measures  were  pressed  by  the  Administration,  the 
one  strongly  national  and  supported  by  a  strong 
majority,  the  other  strongly  Jacksonian  and  op 
posed  by  most  of  the  leaders  who  desired  to  see  Cal 
houn  humiliated.  It  seemed  almost  certain,  early 
in  1833,  that  this  program  would  be  carried  out  to 
the  letter. 

Such  a  victory  for  the  Union  forces  and  especially 


74          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

for  Jackson  was  too  much  for  the  opposition.  Henry 
Clay  stopped  in  Philadelphia  on  his  way  to  Wash 
ington  and  held  a  conference  there  with  the  indus 
trial  leaders  of  the  Middle  States.  He  went  on  to  the 
capital  with  a  plan  of  his  own.  Its  purpose  was  to 
keep  the  control  of  things  in  the  hands  of  the  friends 
of  the  American  System  and  to  deprive  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  prestige  of  settling  the  tariff  and  the 
nullification  problems  at  the  same  time.  He  held  a 
carte  blanche  from  the  leading  protected  interests  to 
do  what  he  thought  best.  Webster  and  John  Quincy 
Adams  hesitated.  They  urged  the  passage  of  the 
"  Force  Bill "  at  once ;  but  hoped  to  defeat  the  Ver- 
planck  measure,  its  counterpart.  Clay  made  over 
tures  to  Calhoun,  and  Washington  was  surprised  to 
see  the  two  great  antagonists  associating  and  plan 
ning  together,  apparently  in  concert  as  of  old  when 
they  forced  the  War  of  1812  upon  an  unwilling 
President. 

The  "  Force  Bill "  was  to  be  accepted  by  the  Calhoun 
men  ;  but  a  new  and  final  tariff  measure  was  to  take 
the  place  of  the  one  upon  which  Jackson  had  set  his 
heart.  The  famous  compromise  law  of  1833  was  the 
result.  This  gave  the  planters  a  reduction  to  twenty 
per  cent,  a  lower  rate  than  Jackson  had  offered,  but  the 
reductions  were  to  be  made  gradually  during  a  period 
of  ten  years,  thus  giving  time  for  the  industrial  men 
to  readjust  their  affairs  without  great  losses.  There 
was  one  joker  in  the  scheme  which  the  Southerners 
seem  to  have  winked  at :  that  which  exempted  the 
wool-growers  of  the  Middle  States  and  the  West 
from  the  reductions.  The  author  of  the  American 


CONFLICT  AND  COMPROMISE         75 

System  now  hotly  urged  the  men  who  a  year  ago 
would  defy  the  "South,  the  Democratic  party,  and  the 
Devil  "  to  undo  all  their  work.  On  March  1,  three 
days  before  the  close  of  the  session,  both  the  Presi 
dent's  "  Force  Bill "  and  Clay's  compromise  tariff 
passed. 

Meanwhile  South  Carolina,  acting  on  Calhoun's 
advice,  had  postponed  the  enforcement  of  her  nulli 
fying  ordinance,  and  now,  as  Congress  adjourned, 
the  former  Vice-President,  ill  and  greatly  discour 
aged,  hurried  by  rapid  stages  to  Columbia  to  make 
sure  that  the  crisis  should  be  brought  to  a  peaceful 
close.  The  convention  was  reassembled  ;  an  embassy 
from  Virginia  was  on  the  ground  urging  peace,  and,  as 
was  natural,  the  ordinance  was  repealed.  The  plant 
ers  had  really  won  a  victory  and  the  rising  industrial 
groups  understood  this  both  at  the  time  and  later, 
when  they  clamored  for  the  restoration  of  their  priv 
ileges.  The  cotton  and  tobacco  men,  producing  the 
larger  part  of  the  national  exports,  had  shown  their 
strength.  Their  opponents,  the  manufacturers  and 
the  bankers  of  the  East,  with  a  much  greater  in 
come,  were  as  yet  not  so  strong  as  the  planters.  The 
West  and  the  South  were  their  markets,  and  conces 
sions  must  be  made  ;  the  Union  was  to  them  essential, 
while  to  the  South,  selling  its  huge  crops  in  Euro 
pean  markets,  it  was  less  important.  As  yet  the 
West,  with  its  hero  the  master  in  Washington, 
had  obtained  none  of  the  reforms  for  which  it  had 
so  long  striven.  Benton  and  his  friends  looked  to 
the  next  Congress  for  results.  Would  they  be  dis 
appointed  ? 


76          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

The  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents  (1900),  vol.  n,  gives 
Jackson's  official  statements.  Bassett's  and  Parton's  biographies, 
already  mentioned,  are  still  very  serviceable.  There  is  no  full 
biography  of  Clay,  but  C.  Colton's  The  Private  Life  of  Henry  Clay 
contains  some  of  Clay's  letters.  Carl  Schurz's  Henry  Clay  and  T. 
H.  Clay's  Henry  Clay,  already  noted,  offer  some  good  information. 
The  best  source  for  Calhoun  is  J.  F.  Jameson's  The  Correspondence 
of  John  C.  Calhoun  (1899).  G.  Hunt's  Life  of  Calhoun  (1908),  in 
American  Crises  series,  is  excellent,  while  D.  F.  Houston's  Critical 
Study  of  Nullification,  already  referred  to,  and  W.  E.  Dodd's  Cal 
houn,  in  Statesmen  of  the  Old  South  (1911),  offer  still  further  infor 
mation  as  to  Calhoun  and  nullification.  C.  H.  Van  Tyne's  Letters  of 
Daniel  Webster  (1902)  supplies  information  about  Webster  which  is 
lacking  in  the  older  Works  by  Everett  (1851)  or  F.  Webster  (1857). 
H.  C.  Lodge's  Daniel  Webster,  in  American  Statesmen  series  and 
J.  B.  McMaster's  Daniel  Webster  (1902)  are  the  standard  biog 
raphies.  Thomas  H.  Benton  has  told  his  own  story  in  his  Thirty 
Years'  View  (1854),  though  Roosevelt's  Thomas  Hart  Benton,  in 
the  American  Statesmen,  and  W.  M.  Meigs's  Thomas  Hart  Benton, 
in  the  American  Crises  series,  are  good  brief  portraits.  William 
McDonald's  The  Jacksonian  Democracy  (1906),  in  the  American 
Nation  series,  is  an  excellent  general  survey,  while  E.  Stanwood's 
American  Tariff  Controversies  (1903)  is  the  best  account  of  the 
tariff  disputes. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    TRIUMPH    OF    JACKSON 

BEFORE  the  great  conflict  between  the  manufac 
turers  and  the  planters  had  been  brought  to  a  lame 
conclusion  in  the  force  bill  and  the  tariff  compromise 
of  1833,  so  unsatisfactory  to  everybody,  Jackson  had 
taken  up  the  Bank  problem,  in  which  the  West  was 
particularly  interested.  The  annual  message  of  1832 
indicated  his  intention  to  close  up  the  business  in  ac 
cordance  with  what  seemed  to  him  to  be  the  decree 
of  the  people.  But  while  the  President  regarded  an 
election  as  settling  the  matter,  it  soon  became  clear 
that  Nicholas  Biddle  and  the  leaders  of  the  United 
States  Senate  were  far  from  that  opinion.  Having 
combined  to  defeat  the  "  old  Indian  scalper,"  as 
Biddle  was  wont  to  term  Jackson,  in  his  plan  to 
bring  South  Carolina  to  terms,  these  able  men  con 
tinued  their  operations  to  balk  him  on  the  Bank 
question. 

The  Bank  of  the  United  States  had  a  capital  stock 
of  $35,000,000,  its  twenty-nine  branches  ramified 
the  commerce  of  the  country,  and  its  total  volume  of 
business  was  about  170,000,000,  or  more  than  the 
amount  of  the  national  exports  each  year.  It  prac 
tically  controlled  the  currency,  and  it  could  increase 
or  diminish  the  amount  of  money  in  circulation  by 
about  one  third  at  any  time.  Nicholas  Biddle,  a  trained 
financier  and  strong-willed  aristocrat,  who  put  little 


78          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

faith  in  popular  elections  and  plebiscites,  was  the 
head  of  the  Bank,  and  all  the  presidents  and  direc 
torates  of  the  subordinate  banks  were  his  appointees  ; 
he  controlled  absolutely  all  the  departments  and  all 
the  directors  of  the  parent  bank  in  Philadelphia,  go 
ing  so  far  in  1833  as  to  deny  the  government  direc 
tors  their  lawful  right  to  attend  the  board  meetings. 
There  has  never  been  another  financial  leader  in  the 
United  States  who  was  so  powerful  or  so  much  feared 
as  was  Nicholas  Biddle  in  1833. 

Both  sides  prepared  for  a  renewal  of  the  struggle 
for  or  against  a  new  charter.  Jackson  sent  Secretary 
of  State  Livingston  as  Minister  to  France  early  in 
1833,  and  transferred  Secretary  McLane  from  the 
Treasury  to  the  State  Department.  It  was  known 
that  both  Livingston  and  McLane  opposed  the  Presi 
dent  in  his  plan  of  overthrowing  the  Bank,  and  this 
shift  was  made  to  avoid  another  break-up  of  the 
Cabinet  and  to  enable  Jackson  to  get  a  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  who  would  support  him.  William  J. 
Duane,  of  Pennsylvania,  accepted  the  vacant  port 
folio  in  January,  1833,  knowing  well  the  President's 
purpose,  which  was  to  withhold  from  the  Bank  the 
federal  deposits.  Agents  were  sent  out  to  ascertain 
what  state  banks  were  in  a  condition  to  receive  the 
proposed  government  funds,  and  of  course  a  strong 
banking  support  was  thus  secured  for  the  contem 
plated  policy. 

Biddle  laughed  at  Jackson's  message  of  1832 
which  denounced  the  Bank.  He  expected  to  receive 
from  Congress  in  due  time  the  charter  which  the 
President  had  denied.  More  than  fifty  members  of 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  JACKSON          79 

that  body,  including  Clay,  Webster,  George  Mc- 
Duffie,  —  Calhoun's  ally  and  the  chairman  of  the 
House  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means,  — and  the 
famous  Davy  Crockett,  were  borrowers  from  the 
Bank  on  the  easiest  of  terms.  The  greater  newspaper 
editors  of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Wash 
ington,  and  Richmond  were  either  opposed  to  the 
President  or  on  Biddle's  list  of  beneficiaries ;  while 
scores  of  hack  writers  all  over  the  country  received 
their  stipends  from  the  "  Monster,"  as  Jackson  desig 
nated  the  Bank.  It  might  have  been  an  easy  matter 
for  Biddle  and  Clay  to  secure  their  charter  from  the 
Congress  which  sat  in  its  closing  session  in  the  winter 
of  1833.  But  the  great  thing  before  them  at  that  time 
was  the  nullification -tariff  problem,  which  threatened 
civil  war,  and  the  friends  of  the  Bank  joined  the 
protectionists  and,  under  Clay's  deft  leadership,  as 
we  have  seen, defeated  Jackson'splan  for  tariff  reform. 
The  short  session  drew  to  a  close,  and  Biddle,  Clay, 
and  Webster  prepared  for  renewing  their  fight 
when  Congress  came  together  in  December. 

When  the  lines  began  to  tighten  in  the  summer 
of  1833,  Duane  weakened  and  finally  refused  to 
withhold  the  government  deposits  from  the  Bank.  He 
was  dismissed  from  office  and  Roger  B.  Taney,  the 
Attorney-General,  took  the  vacant  place  and  agreed 
to  do  Jackson's  bidding.  From  October  1, 1833,  the 
income  of  the  Treasury  was  placed  as  it  accrued  in 
the  custody  of  the  state  banks  which  had  been  made 
ready  for  the  new  policy.  Jackson  declared  that  the 
National  Bank  had  become  unsafe  and  therefore  an 
unfit  place  for  the  keeping  of  110,000,000  of  the 


80          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

people's  money,  the  amount  then  on  deposit.  But  the 
real  reason  of  the  change  was  social  and  political. 
The  President  desired  to  weaken  the  Bank,  lest  its 
representatives,  its  masterful  lobbyists,  and  the  fi 
nancial  pressure  it  was  bringing  to  bear  should  wrest 
from  Congress  a  charter  which  the  people  had  re 
pudiated. 

Meanwhile  Biddle  had  begun  his  campaign  to  com 
pel  both  Jackson  and  the  people  to  yield.  On  Au 
gust  1,  two  months  before  the  Treasury  began  to 
place  its  receipts  in  the  state  banks,  Biddle  ordered 
a  curtailment  of  the  loans  of  the  National  Bank  and 
its  branches.  In  the  South  and  West,  where  large 
sums  were  needed  at  that  moment  to  move  the  cot 
ton  and  grain  crops,  the  curtailment  was  double  that 
of  the  East.  This  led  to  immediate  financial  strin 
gency  ;  National  Bank  notes,  the  standard  money  of 
the  time,  became  scarce ;  and  gold  or  silver  was  ab 
solutely  wanting.  The  state  banks  were  naturally 
forced  to  withhold  their  accustomed  loans  and  the 
anticipated  government  deposits  could  not  be  drawn 
upon.  Business  failures  became  frequent  and  laborers 
were  discharged.  It  was  a  panic  in  the  midst  of  pros 
perity.  The  program  was  executed  with  callous  heart- 
lessness  by  Biddle,  and  with  the  approval  of  men  like 
Clay  and  Webster,  till  Congress  met  in  December. 

The  people  were  beginning  to  see  what  a  power  they 
had  attacked.  Rates  of  interest  rose  from  six  to  fifteen 
percent ;  farms  and  crops  were  sold  under  the  sheriff's 
hammer  at  absurdly  low  prices.  The  outlook  was  any 
thing  but  bright  when  the  next  annual  message  of 
the  President  called  upon  the  national  legislature  to 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  JACKSON          81 

aid  him  in  his  struggle.  Petitions  were  pouring  into 
Washington  by  the  thousand,  and  delegations  of 
business  men  appeared  almost  daily  at  the  White 
House,  asking  Jackson  to  restore  the  deposits  and 
surrender  to  .the  great  corporation,  thus  acknowledg 
ing  the  subordination  of  the  country  to  one  of  its 
interests. 

Under  these  circumstances  and  awaiting  confi 
dently  the  effect  of  the  Bank's  drastic  pressure  upon 
public  opinion,  Clay  began  in  January,  1834,  the 
work  of  compelling  the  President  to  restore  the  de 
posits.  For  weeks  and  even  months  the  Senate  was 
the  scene  of  the  most  extraordinary  denunciations, 
and  the  press  of  the  country  was  burdened  with  the 
attacks  and  counter-attacks  of  the  parties  to  this 
fierce  and  unrelenting  struggle.  In  the  East  busi 
ness  failures,  the  closing  of  the  doors  of  manufaC' 
turing  establishments,  and  the  discharge  of  small 
armies  of  employees  furnished  all  the  proof  neces 
sary  that  the  distress  was  real.  From  all  sections  of 
the  country  cries  of  distress,  memorials,  and  peti 
tions  came  up  to  Washington.  Biddle  and  his 
friends  had  no  thought  of  relenting,  but  continued 
the  curtailment  of  the  financial  business  of  the 
country  far  beyond  what  might  have  seemed  neces 
sary  on  account  of  the  removal  of  deposits ;  they 
were  certain  that  only  a  few  months  more  of  pres 
sure  and  of  increased  suffering  on  the  part  of  the 
people  would  compel  Jackson  to  yield  or  Congress 
to  grant  the  desired  charter  over  the  head  of  the 
President. 

But  the  Congress  which  was  elected  in  1832  and 


82          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

which  sat  from  December,  1833,  to  March,  1835, 
was  not  so  pliable  as  that  which  arranged  the  peace 
with  South  Carolina.  Still,  the  Senate  sustained  the 
Bank  by  a  decided  majority,  and  in  March  it  for 
mally  censured  Jackson  for  his  removal  of  the  de 
posits.  In  this  Clay  was  conspicuous,  and  Webster 
and  Calhoun  were  his  sympathetic  allies.  On  the 
other  hand,  Ben  ton,  Silas  Wright,  of  New  York, 
and  John  Forsyth,  of  Georgia,  made  a  most  spirited 
defense  of  Jackson  and  of  the  cause  of  the  people, 
as  they  insisted.  In  the  House  the  situation  was 
reversed,  and  all  Biddle's  energy  and  resolute  lobby 
ing  failed  to  secure  a  favorable  vote.  It  became 
clear  early  in  the  spring  that  the  President  could 
not  be  moved,  and  that  impeachment,  which  had  been 
the  hope  and  talk  of  many,  would  be  impossible. 
When  the  weight  of  public  opinion  inclined  visibly 
to  the  side  of  Jackson  at  the  end  of  spring,  Clay,  who 
had  for  some  time  doubted  the  loyalty  of  Biddle,  and 
who  was  especially  anxious  to  regain  his  former  pop 
ularity  in  the  West,  refused  to  continue  the  fight ; 
Webster,  too,  lost  interest  and  advised  the  directors 
of  the  Bank  that  the  cause  was  lost.  Calhoun,  who 
had  supported  Clay  and  Webster  to  humiliate  Jack 
son,  could  not  retreat ;  he  was  again  isolated,  and 
he  felt  his  position  bitterly.  McDuffie  resigned  his 
seat  and  his  chairmanship  in  the  House  in  utter 
disgust.  To  all  but  the  president  of  the  United 
States  Bank  the  case  seemed  hopeless  when  Congress 
adjourned  in  early  summer  without  passing  any  act 
bearing  on  the  situation.  Biddle's  remark  in  a  letter 
to  a  friend  in  Baltimore,  "  If  the  Bank  charter  were 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  JACKSON          83 

renewed  or  prolonged,  I  believe  the  pecuniary  diffi 
culties  of  the  country  would  be  immediately  healed," 
shows  his  attitude  ;  and  by  this  time  the  people 
seem  to  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  not 
a  war  of  Jackson  upon  the  Bank  so  much  as  a  war 
of  the  Bank  upon  the  country  to  compel  the  reissue 
of  a  charter  which  was  about  to  expire.  Petitions 
now  poured  into  Biddle's  office  and  delegations  from 
Middle  States  cities  urged  a  change  of  the  Bank's 
policy ;  even  Albert  Gallatin,  long  a  defender  and 
ardent  friend,  deserted  Biddle.  And  at  last,  after 
the  nation's  currency  of  some  hundred  millions 
had  been  reduced  by  one  third,  and  when  money 
rates  in  New  York  were  running  as  high  as  twenty- 
four  per  cent,  the  order  went  out  to  the  branch 
banks  to  suspend  the  stringent  punitive  measures  in 
order  that  "  We  may  save  our  beloved  country  from 
the  curse  of  Van  Burenism,"  as  one  of  the  directors 
described  it. 

The  decline  of  the  power  of  the  Bank  was  now 
rapid.  In  the  state  and  congressional  elections  of 
1834  the  President  of  the  United  States  was  every 
where  sustained,  even  the  Whigs  quietly  taking  the 
same  ground.  The  friendship  of  the  Bank  was  now 
enough  to  damn  any  party  ;  Biddle  realized  the  dan 
ger  of  his  situation,  and  on  election  day  sent  his  fam 
ily  out  of  town  and  barricaded  his  house  and  office. 
The  legislatures  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  York, 
where  his  flag  had  flown  triumphantly  for  years,  de 
nounced  him  and  planned  to  issue  bonds  for  the 
relief  of  the  people.  The  autumn  saw  a  complete 
reversal  of  policy  on  the  part  of  the  Bank,  and  busi- 


84          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

ness  at  once  resumed  its  normal  course.  Money 
became  easy,  prices  rose  to  the  former  level,  and  the 
wheels  of  industry  began  to  turn.  Nothing  seemed 
more  conclusively  shown  than  that  most  of  the 
trouble  had  been  due  to  the  demand  on  the  part  of 
a  few  men  for  a  continuation  of  financial  privileges. 

Jackson's  first  great  victory  was  won,  and  he 
would  have  been  more  than  human  not  to  have 
shown  his  sense  of  triumph  on  the  reassembling  of 
Congress  at  the  end  of  the  momentous  year.  The 
Monster  had  been  crushed ;  and  all  his  great  ene 
mies —  Clay,  Webster,  Adams,  and  Calhoun  —  had 
been  beaten ! 

Before  the  first  break  in  the  Cabinet  Jackson  had 
proved  the  value  of  direct  and  simple  methods  in 
diplomacy.  In  colonial  times  and  during  the  opera 
tion  of  the  Jay  Treaty  the  West  India  trade  was 
most  important.  From  New  England  and  the  Mid 
dle  States  fish,  lumber,  grain,  and  other  plantation 
supplies  had  been  sold  to  the  West  India  planters 
in  great  quantities.  The  war  of  the  Revolution  cur 
tailed  this  trade ;  that  of  1812  practically  destroyed 
it,  and  England  thereafter  refused  to  allow  Amer 
ican  shipping  any  rights  in  these  possessions,  though 
Adams  and  Clay  had  urged  the  reciprocal  benefits 
of  such  a  commerce. 

The  Jackson  Administration  succeeded  in  secur 
ing  almost  immediately  the  desired  trade  arrange 
ments,  and  the  shipping  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  of 
Boston  and  New  York,  took  its  wonted  course.  This 
victory  was  hardly  scored  before  the  new  President 
secured  from  France  formal  treaty  recognition  of 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  JACKSON          85 

the  old  spoliation  claims  arising  from  the  depreda 
tions  of  Napoleon  I,  which  no  former  administration 
had  been  able  to  collect.  In  1831  the  Government 
of  Louis  Philippe  agreed  to  pay  these  damages  to  the 
amount  of  25,000,000  francs.  But  the  French  leg 
islature  delayed  to  vote  the  necessary  appropria 
tions.  Jackson,  assuming  that  the  obligations  would 
be  met  promptly,  drew  upon  the  French  treasury 
for  the  first  installment  and  asked  the  National 
Bank  to  collect  the  bills  —  somewhat  over  1900,000. 
The  papers  were  duly  presented  in  Paris,  but  they 
were  dishonored.  This  happened  in  1833,  when  the 
Bank  was  in  the  midst  of  the  fight  on  the  President. 
Biddle,  without  hesitation,  charged  the  Government 
$  15,0 00  for  the  damage  to  the  reputation  of  the 
Bank  because  the  draft  had  been  dishonored  in  Paris. 
The  Government  refused  to  pay  the  claim,  and  a 
lawsuit  of  ten  years  followed  which  was  finally  de 
cided  against  the  Bank. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  Jackson,  prepar 
ing  for  the  removal  of  the  deposits,  sent  Secretary 
Livingston  to  France  to  urge  the  execution  of  the 
treaty  of  1831.  Livingston  failed  to  convince  the 
French  assembly  that  it  was  necessary  either  to  pay 
the  overdue  claims  or  to  execute  certain  reciprocity 
clauses  of  the  treaty.  In  December,  1834,  when 
the  Bank  crisis  had  passed,  the  President  sent  to 
Congress  a  message  which  asked  for  the  passage  of 
an  act  authorizing  reprisals  on  French  shipping  or 
other  property.  Such  a  warlike  proposition,  with 
the  explanation  which  accompanied  it,  aroused  the 
country.  In  commercial  centers  there  was  great 


86          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

excitement,  and  insurance  companies  changed  their 
contracts  in  expectation  of  war. 

Once  more  the  President  was  opposed  and  de 
nounced  in  the  Senate  as  a  reckless  Executive  who 
would  rush  headlong  into  war.  But  the  treaty  with 
France  authorized  just  such  procedure  as  had  been 
suggested,  and  only  recently  France  had  taken  the 
same  course  with  other  countries.  It  soon  became 
so  clear  that  Jackson  was  within  his  rights  and  that 
the  country  was  behind  him,  that  resolutions  were 
suffered  to  pass  the  Senate  virtually  approving  this 
part  of  the  message.  In  the  House  the  vote  indors 
ing  the  Executive  was  unanimous,  though  it  was  not 
thought  advisable  to  do  more  than  this  until  there 
had  been  ample  time  for  reconsideration  of  the  sub 
ject  in  France. 

The  strong  language  of  the  President  aroused  a 
storm  of  criticism  in  France,  and  for  a  time  war  was 
threatened.  The  French  Minister  in  Washington 
was  recalled,  and  of  course  the  diplomatic  represen 
tative  of  the  United  States  in  Paris  was  withdrawn. 
The  conservative  press  of  Europe  made  this  another 
occasion  for  ridiculing  the  Yankee  Republic,  whose 
money-making  propensities  should  be  curtailed  and 
whose  gaudy  wares  and  vulgar  rocking-chairs  should 
be  tabooed  everywhere.  "  Let  the  French  navy  sweep 
the  Atlantic  Ocean  of  their  ships  and  again  take  pos 
session  of  Louisiana  "  was  the  unfriendly  advice  of 
certain  English  journals.  Before  the  summer  of  1835 
closed,  all  relations  between  France  and  the  United 
States  had  ceased,  though  actual  war  was  not  ex 
pected.  When  Congress  met,  Jackson  reviewed  the 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  JACKSON          87 

situation  in  a  calm  manner  and  gave  every  oppor 
tunity  for  the  reopening  of  negotiations,  though  war 
like  preparations  were  recommended  to  meet  those 
of  France.  But  England  tendered  her  friendly  offices, 
and  the  difficulty  was  promptly  brought  to  a  satis 
factory  conclusion  by  the  payment  of  the  indemnity 
so  long  due. 

More  interesting  and  more  important  to  the  West 
and  South  was  the  stern  and  persistent  policy  of 
Jackson  in  removing  the  Indians  from  their  fertile 
lands.  From  Michigan  the  natives  were  pushed  into 
Wisconsin  and  Illinois,  where  they  rested  a  few  short 
years,  only  to  be  driven  in  1833  beyond  the  Missis 
sippi  to  the  western  parts  of  Iowa  and  Minnesota, 
against  the  heroic  struggles  of  Black  Hawk  and  a 
handful  of  followers.  From  the  lower  South  the 
Creeks,  Cherokees,  Choctaws,  and  Chickasaws  were 
gradually  removed  during  the  years  1830  to  1838, 
sometimes  after  the  most  shameless  and  brutal  treat 
ment  by  the  representatives  of  both  the  States  and 
the  Nation.  Before  Jackson  came  to  office  the  Creeks 
of  western  Georgia  had  been  browbeaten  into  sales 
of  their  lands  and  then  removed  to  the  region  be 
yond  Arkansas,  to  be  known  thereafter  as  the  Indian 
Territory.  In  1833  to  1835  the  Choctaws  and  Chick 
asaws  of  Mississippi  were  defrauded  of  their  best 
lands  and  carried  forcibly  to  the  new  Indian  coun 
try  ;  but  the  most  arbitrary  part  of  the  governmental 
policy  was  the  expulsion  of  the  Cherokees  from  their 
beautiful  hills  in  northern  Georgia.  Thirteen  thou 
sand  in  number,  civilized  and  devotedly  attached  to 
their  homes,  these  people  insisted  on  remaining  and 


=88          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

becoming  a  State  to  themselves.    Under  the  leader 
ship  of  John  Ross,  they  presented  the  case  to  the 


rowth  of  the  West  and  removal  of  Indians 

from  Cotton,  Tobacco  and 
First  "Western"  Grain  Belts. 

f  part  of  Tanner's  Map  of  1310 


Longitude     We 


from    Greenwich 


United  States  Supreme  Court,  which  decided  in  1830 
that  they  composed  a  nation  and  that  they  could  not 
lawfully  be  compelled  to  submit  to  Georgia.  The 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  JACKSON          89 

people  of  Georgia  would  not  for  a  moment  consider 
such  a  proposition,  and  moreover  they  had  made  up 
their  minds  that  the  Cherokees  must  likewise  give 
up  their  lands  and  migrate  to  the  Far  West.  Jack 
son  took  this  view,  and  in  December,  1835,  he  made 
a  treaty  with  some  of  the  chiefs  whereby  the  Chero 
kees  were  to  receive  new  lands  in  the  Indian  Territory 
and  more  than  five  millions  in  money.  This  treaty  was 
at  once  denounced  and  repudiated  by  the  majoritv 
of  the  Indians,  but  the  government  agents  executed 
it,  and  during  the  next  three  years  the  helpless  na 
tives  were  hunted  down  and  carried,  all  save  a  small 
remnant,  to  the  new  region.  Thus  President  Mon 
roe's  plan  of  settling  the  natives  beyond  the  western 
frontier  in  Minnesota,  Iowa,  Kansas,  and  what  is 
now  Oklahoma,  was  worked  out,  and  the  land-hungry 
Western  settlers  were  fast  following  them  into  their 
distant  homes;  but  practically  all  the  lands  east  of 
the  great  river  were  open  to  settlement,  and  Wiscon 
sin,  Illinois,  Alabama,  and  Mississippi  rapidly  became 
populous  communities.1  No  measure  of  Jackson's 
Administration  won  him  greater  popularity  than  that 
of  the  removal  of  the  Indians. 

With  the  tariff  question  "  definitely  "  settled,  the 
internal  improvements  demands  temporarily  in  abey 
ance,  the  Bank  "out  of  the  way,"  and  with  a  growing 
prestige  both  at  home  and  abroad,  Jackson  might  now 
have  formulated  the  other  Western  ideals,  free  home 
steads,  the  re-claiming  of  Texas,  and  the  occupation 
of  Oregon.  But  this  was  all  left  to  Van  Buren,  the 

1  Compare  maps  showing   Indian  lands  of   1830  and  1840  on 
pp.  26  and  88. 


90          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

man  already  practically  chosen  to  carry  forward  the 
policies  of  the  "  old  hero."  However,  without  a  free 
homestead  law  or  even  a  preemption  system,  on  which 
Benton  had  long  insisted,  the  West  was  filling  up 
with  people  in  an  unprecedented  manner.  The  popu 
lation  of  Alabama  was  only  a  little  more  than  a  hun 
dred  thousand  in  1820  ;  in  1835,  it  was  not  less  than 
half  a  million.  Mississippi  counted  seventy-five  thou 
sand  in  1820;  in  1840,  its  population  had  increased 
sixfold.  The  same  story  was  told  by  the  statistics  of 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  Iowa. 
There  was  life,  vigor,  and  rapid  growth  in  all  the 
accessible  parts  of  the  region  which  worshiped  the 
President.  Jackson's  election  was  an  advertisement 
of  the  West ;  the  long  debates  in  Congress  about 
checking  emigration  to  the  Mississippi  Valley  in 
creased  the  desire  to  go  to  the  new  and  happy  coun 
try  ;  and  the  hard  times  of  1833-34  set  thousands  of 
men  upon  the  highways  leading  to  the  promised  land. 
And  in  the  Western  States  every  effort  was  made 
to  attract  people.  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois  built 
waterways  which  should  feed  the  Mississippi  or  Erie 
Canal  commerce,  and  thus  make  Western  life  profit 
able  as  well  as  free  and  unconventional.  Where 
canals  could  not  be  constructed  would  go  the  great 
government  road,  passing  through  Ohio,  Indiana, 
and  Illinois,  and  its  state-built  branches.  Even  rail 
roads  were  projected  in  that  far-off  country.  In  the 
Southwest  the  network  of  rivers  offered  transporta 
tion  facilities  to  the  increasing  crops  of  cotton,  and 
ambitious  men  flocked  there  to  "  make  fortunes  in  a 
day."  Sargent  Prentiss,  the  poor  New  England  crip- 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  JACKSON          91 

pie,  went  to  Mississippi  about  1830,  and  in  six  years 
he  was  both  rich  and  famous ;  John  A.  Quitman,  the 
preacher's  son,  of  New  York,  worked  his  way  about 
the  same  time  to  the  lower  Mississippi  country,  and 
in  a  few  years  was  receiving  an  annual  income  of 
forty  thousand  dollars.  John  Slidell  left  New  York 
City  a  bankrupt  in  1819,  but  soon  became  a  great 
lawyer  and  slave-owner  in  New  Orleans. 

The  yearly  migration  of  thousands  of  Eastern  men 
to  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  was  still  further  aug 
mented  by  streams  of  refugees  from  the  unsettled 
and  distressed  conditions  of  Germany.  In  Ohio, 
Kentucky,  southern  Illinois,  and  Missouri  these 
idealistic  emigrants  from  Europe  found  new  homes 
and  substantial  encouragement.  They  sent  glowing 
accounts  of  the  new  world  to  their  friends  at  home, 
and  the  tide  of  immigration  which  was  destined  to 
enrich  American  life  steadily  increased.  All  this 
stimulated  speculation  in  Western  lands,  in  canal 
and  banking  ventures.  The  Government  sales  of 
lands  rose  from  14,837,000  in  1834  to  124,000,000 
in  1836.  And  the  canal  schemes  of  Ohio,  Indiana, 
and  Illinois  found  financial  support  in  New  York 
and  in  London.  No  wonder  the  eastern  manufac 
turers  sometimes  desired  to  close  the  roads  that 
crossed  the  Alleghanies. 

"  Nothing  succeeds  like  success  "  is  an  American 
saying  which  applies  admirably  to  Jackson's  second 
administration.  The  Western  President  had  won 
all  his  great  contests ;  Calhoun  and  the  radical 
South  had  been  tamed  ;  Clay  and  Webster  were 
dragged  behind  his  car  of  state ;  the  National  Bank 


92          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

was  rapidly  passing  from  the  political  stage ;  an;l 
the  tariff  was  no  longer  a  troublesome  factor  in  pub 
lic  life.  The  receipts  of  the  Treasury  had  steadily 
outrun  the  expenses,  and  in  1834  the  last  of  the  na 
tional  debt  was  paid.  Since  the  income  was  almost 
certain  to  continue  great,  Jackson  was  at  a  loss  what 
to  do.  Henry  Clay  urged  a  simple  distribution  among 
the  States.  The  President  feared  the  effect  of  this, 
and  vetoed  a  bill  to  that  effect ;  he  even  proposed 
that  the  Federal  Government  should  buy  stock  in 
all  the  railway  corporations  in  order  that  these  grow 
ing  monopolies  be  duly  restrained.  After  two  years 
of  disagreement  a  law  was  enacted  which  offered  to 
deposit  the  surplus  with  the  States  without  interest 
charges,  but  subject  to  recall.  The  States  hastened 
to  make  the  necessary  arrangements,  and  during  the 
second  half  of  1836  and  the  first  quarter  of  1837 
more  than  $18,000,000  were  thus  deposited. 

The  land  speculations,  already  at  fever  heat  in  the 
West,  the  building  of  railways  and  canals,  and  the 
prospective  distribution  of  millions  of  the  public 
money  warned  the  wise  that  sail  must  be  taken  in, 
else  disaster  would  ensue.  Jackson,  therefore,  issued 
an  executive  order  in  July,  1836,  requiring  the  land 
offices  to  accept  only  specie  in  payment  for  lands  ; 
but  it  was  not  thought  that  this  would  occasion  any 
great  distress.  The  people  seemed  to  be  satisfied 
with  the  "reign"  of  Andrew  Jackson,  and  it  might 
have  been  expected  that  he  would  have  little  diffi 
culty  in  placing  his  friend  Van  Buren  in  the  high 
office  so  soon  to  be  vacated. 

It  did  not  prove  so  easy  as  it  seemed.  Calhoun 


90°  Longitude        We«t 


The  Presidential  Election 
of 1S36 

The  Popular  Vote  by  Counties 


ELECTORS  WERE 

CHOSEN   BY  THE 

LEGISLATURE 


50       100  200  800 

For  Van  Buren 


For  the  Whi<;  Candidates; 

except  South  Carolina 
whose  vote  was  given  to  W.P.Mangum 

=  No  Returns      O  =  No  Election 
This  map  shows  the  unsettled  political  thinking 
of  the  people  which  followed  the  Jackson  Administratio 
Compare  with  map  for  1844 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  JACKSON          93 

and  his  followers  were  still  hostile.  In  Tennessee, 
Hugh  Lawson  White  was  heading  a  serious  revolt 
against  Jackson  and  all  his  party,  and  of  course 
New  England  was  still  dissatisfied.  Since  the  great 
fight  between  the  President  and  the  Bank  in  1833-34, 
Henry  Clay  had  been  welding  together  all  the  forces 
of  the  opposition.  States-rights  men  in  the  South, 
like  John  Tyler,  of  Virginia,  and  William  C.  Pres 
ton,  of  South  Carolina,  the  conservative  forces  in  the 
Middle  States  who  were  connected  with  banking  and 
"  big  business,"  and  the  internal  improvements  forces 
of  the  West  that  were  still  discontented,  were  all 
united  in  a  more  or  less  cohesive  party  of  opposition. 
A  platform  they  could  not  risk ;  in  fact,  platforms 
were  not  as  yet  necessary  for  election,  nor  was  it 
thought  best  to  nominate  a  single  pair  of  candidates 
and  submit  their  case  to  the  country.  The  Wrhigs, 
as  the  opposition  now  came  to  be  called,  arranged  a 
ticket  which  Daniel  Webster  led  in  the  East,  which 
William  Henry  Harrison,  a  popular  military  hero 
of  the  Northwest,  headed  in  that  section,  and  which 
Hugh  Lawson  White,  a  Jackson  man  till  1834, 
championed  in  the  Southwest.  There  followed  a  four- 
cornered  contest  which  resulted  in  the  choice  of  Van 
Buren  by  a  popular  majority  of  less  than  30,000, 
Van  Buren  carried  more  of  the  New  England  States 
than  did  Webster  and  more  of  the  South  than  did 
White,  but  he  lost  most  of  the  West,  even  Tennes 
see,  which  had  been  the  stronghold  of  his  party. 
The  counties  of  the  old  South  where  Jackson  had 
been  most  feared  gave  their  votes  to  Van  Buren,  the 
"  safe  and  sane  ";  and  many  New  England  and  Mid- 


94          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

die  States  manufacturers  preferred  to  take  their 
chances  with  a  masterful  organizer  of  conservative 
temper,  who  had  been  the  balance  wheel  of  the 
Jackson  Administration,  to  risking  all  in  an  election 
in  the  House  of  Representatives,  where  the  sections 
would  be  fighting  fiercely  for  political  and  party  ad 
vantages.  The  new  regime  of  1829  was  thus  about 
to  be  turned  into  a  reaction.  There  was  a  common 
feeling  that  Van  Buren  would  do  nothing  "radical." 
Even  Calhoun  thought  better  of  the  President-elect 
than  he  thought  of  the  "  old  hero,"  and  the  first  six 
months  of  the  new  Administration  had  not  passed 
before  he  gave  the  President  his  support. 

The  political  sun  of  Jackson  went  down  brightly, 
not  a  cloud  on  the  horizon  ;  and  his  chosen  successor 
declared  openly  in  his  inaugural  that  he  would  gladly 
follow  in  "  the  footsteps  of  his  illustrious  predeces 
sor."  The  country  was  still  prosperous  and  the 
wheels  of  industry  were  running  at  full  speed.  For 
eign  Governments  looked  on  with  envy  as  the  young 
Western  Republic  stretched  her  limbs  and  rose  to 
gigantic  proportions. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

The  most  important  book  on  the  bank  question  is  R.  C.  H. 
CatteralTs  The  Second  Bank  of  the  United  States  (1903).  The  biog 
raphies  referred  to  at  the  close  of  chapter  iv  of  this  volume  are  all 
serviceable  in  general  till  about  1840.  James  Schouler's  History 
of  the  United  States  (1894-99),  vol.  iv,  and  H.  von  Hoist's  Consti 
tutional  and  Political  History  of  the  United  States  (new  ed.,  1899), 
vol.  n,  give  full  narratives  of  the  "war  on  the  bank,"  J.  Q.  Adams's 
Memoirs  are  ever  ready  with  the  spice  of  personality  to  make  its 
pages  readable.  The  Register  of  Debates,  the  official  publication  of 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  JACKSON          95 

Congress  which  succeeded  the  former  Annals  of  Congress  and 
Niless  Weekly  Register,  published  in  Baltimore  from  1811  to  1849, 
give  the  various  phases  of  public  opinion  as  it  was  expressed  in 
Congress  and  in  the  newspapers  of  the  time.  House  Reports,  22d 
Cong.  1st  Sess.,  no.  460,  and  House  Executive  Documents,  23d 
Cong.,  1st  Sess.,  no.  523,  will  satisfy  those  who  seek  to  know  the 
two  sides  as  viewed  by  the  parties  to  the  conflict.  There  is  no 
satisfactory  biography  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  though  his  papers 
may  be  consulted  in  the  Pennsylvania  Historical  Society  Library. 
R.  G.  Wellington's  The  Political  and  Sectional  Influence  of  the 
Public  Lands,  1828-1842  (1914)  tends  to  show  how  much  of  the 
controversies  of  these  years  was  due  to  sectional  jealousy. 


CHAPTER   VI 

DISTRESS    AND    REACTION 

MARTIN  VAN  BUREN  came  to  office  without  the 
enthusiastic  support  of  any  large  segment  of  public 
opinion.  The  machine  forces  of  the  time  and  the 
hearty  recommendation  of  Andrew  Jackson  had  been 
responsible  for  his  elevation.  His  position  was  very 
much  like  that  of  John  Quincy  Adams  in  1825.  If 
the  East  had  preferred  him  to  his  predecessor,  it 
was  not  because  the  East  proposed  to  surrender  any 
of  her  interests  ;  and  if  the  West  liked  him  less  than 
she  had  liked  her  hero,  it  was  just  because  his  feel 
ings  and  interests  were  suspected. 

He  had  supported  Jackson  in  the  breaking-down 
of  a  stable  civil  service  in  1829,  in  order  to  ruin 
their  common  opponents,  Adams  and  Clay.  Now 
Van  Buren  was  to  inherit  the  evils  of  the  spoils  sys 
tem,  and  Adams,  Clay,  and  Webster  were  leading 
the  attack  upon  him  both  in  Congress  and  in  the 
country.  Jackson's  collector  of  the  customs  in  New 
York  defaulted  in  the  sum  of  $1,250,000  during  the 
first  year  of  Van  Buren's  term  ;  and  to  make  mat 
ters  worse  the  new  appointee  behaved  quite  as  scan 
dalously  the  next  year.  Out  of  sixty-seven  land  offi 
cers  in  the  West  and  South,  sixty-four  were  reported 
in  1837  as  defaulters,  and  the  United  States  Treas 
ury  lost  nearly  a  million  dollars  on  their  account. 
The  Jacksonian  Democracy  was  certainly  putting 


DISTRESS  AND  REACTION  97 

its  worst  foot  foremost,  and  the  great  leaders  of  the 
opposition  held  up  their  hands  in  horror  at  a  system 
which  "  reeked  with  corruption  from  center  to  cir 
cumference." 

Van  Buren  had  begun  badly.  But  worse  was  to 
follow.  The  receipts  from  federal  land  sales  dropped 
from  $24,000,000  in  1836  to  $6,000,000  in  1837, 
and  the  total  income  of  the  Government  declined 
from  150,000,000  to  $24,000,000  in  the  same  year.; 
and  the  expenditures  of  the  Treasury  outran  the  re 
ceipts  during  1837  and  1838  by  more  than  $21,- 
000,000.  A  deficit  of  $300,000,000  for  two  succes 
sive  years  in  our  time  would  not  be  worse  than  the 
deficit  of  the  unpopular  successor  of  Andrew  Jack 
son.  From  1833  to  1836  there  had  been  an  annual 
surplus  equal  sometimes  to  the  total  expense  of  the 
Government.  The  national  debt  had  been  paid  in 
full  and  money  had  been  loaned  to  the  States  with 
out  interest  or  security.  There  was  to  be  no  more 
national  debt  and  no  more  paying  of  interest  to 
hard-driving  capitalists ;  but  Van  Buren  borrowed 
$34,000,000  in  two  years  to  meet  the  ordinary  ex 
penses  of  his  Administration. 

The  honors  of  the  time  were,  and  have  since  been, 
bestowed  upon  Jackson,  and  all  the  blame  of  things 
was,  and  has  since  been,  laid  upon  the  shoulders  of 
Van  Buren.  But  the  fault  was  not  Van  Buren 's.  A 
number  of  causes  had  produced  this  surprising  and 
distressing  state  of  affairs.  After  the  great  success 
of  the  Erie  and  other  canals  in  the  East,  Western 
States  entered  upon  an  era  of  canal  building  which 
the  richest  of  communities  could  ill  have  borne. 


98          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Railroads  were  beginning  to  create  markets  for  East 
ern  farmers.  The  Westerners,  therefore,  sunk  mil 
lions  of  their  hard  earnings  in  railways  which 
paralleled  their  canals  or  projected  into  wilder 
nesses.  Between  1830  and  1840  these  ventures  of 
the  West,  from  Michigan  to  Louisiana,  absorbed 
hundreds  of  millions  of  capital.  Illinois  borrowed 
$14,000,000  when  her  total  annual  income  was  hardly 
more  than  $250,000 ;  Mississippi  borrowed  $12,000,- 
000  on  a  yearly  income  a  little  less  than  that  of 
Illinois.  The  States  had  mortgaged  their  futures  for 
decades  to  come.  This  was  especially  true  of  West 
ern  communities ;  but  Eastern  States  like  Pennsyl 
vania,  Virginia,  and  South  Carolina  were  also  in 
debt  for  similar  amounts.  Everybody  thought  the 
resources  of  the  United  States  were  inexhaustible  ; 
and  everybody  seemed  willing  to  tax  future  genera 
tions  beyond  all  precedent  in  order  to  develop  these 
resources. 

The  depositing  of  the  federal  funds  in  state 
banks  by  Jackson  had  greatly  stimulated  specula 
tion.  Public  interest  in  banks,  already  great,  in 
creased  enormously.  Forty  new  banks  were  created 
in  Pennsylvania  in  a  single  year.  State  banks  in 
creased  their  capital  and  extended  their  operations. 
In  two  years  the  bank  notes  in  circulation  increased 
from  $95,000,000  to  $140,000,000  ;  loans  and  dis 
counts  rose  from  $324,000,000  to  $457,000,000. 
The  National  Bank,  which  had  curtailed  business  in 
order  to  embarrass  the  country  and  particularly 
President  Jackson,  quickly  changed  its  tactics,  and, 
sailing  under  a  charter  from  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 


DISTRESS  AND   REACTION  99 

vania,  kept  pace  with  its  five  hundred  rivals.  To  be 
sure  the  Federal  Constitution  forbade  the  States  to 
issue  bills  of  credit.  But  the  States  incorporated 
banking  companies  which  issued  the  forbidden  notes 
by  the  million,  and  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  now  that  Marshall  was  dead  and  the  per 
sonnel  of  its  membership  had  undergone  a  change, 
declared  the  practice  lawful. 

States  indorsed  or  participated  in  the  proceedings 
of  the  banks,  the  banks  loaned  to  other  corporations 
or  to  private  individuals  on  such  security  as  land, 
slaves,  improvements  already  made,  or  the  personal 
credit  of  men  otherwise  deeply  in  debt.  The  flood 
of  money  was  thus,  before  1837,  invested  in  lands 
and  houses  or  railroads  and  canals  which  could 
neither  pay  dividends  nor  return  the  principal  for 
several  years.  It  seemed  that  when  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment  paid  the  last  of  its  debt,  the  States  eagerly 
pursued  the  opposite  principle  and  created  the 
greatest  debts  possible. 

Though  the  people  of  the  United  States  joined  in 
all  these  wild  ventures,  they  were  not  solely  re 
sponsible.  Europe,  especially  England,  had  been 
anxious  to  lend.  The  Erie  Canal  had  been  built  upon 
borrowed  capital,  and  it  had  paid  good  dividends. 
The  old  National  Bank,  now  going  out  of  business, 
had  placed  $25,000,000  of  its  stock  in  Europe,  and 
the  holders  had  received  most  liberal  returns.  Ameri 
can  investments  were  quoted  as  "  excellent  "  by  the 
Baring  Brothers  of  London  to  their  thousands  of 
customers.  And  why  not?  The  Federal  Govern 
ment  had  recently  paid  the  last  dollar  of  its  two 


100         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

huge  debts,  more  than  $80,000,000  for  the  cost  of 
the  Revolution  and  1110,000,000  for  the  cost  of  the 
War  of  1812,  and  the  rate  of  interest  had  often 
been  as  high  as  eight  per  cent.  Was  there  a  similar 
example  in  all  history?  The  bad  reputation  of 
1783-1800  for  debt-paying  had  been  lived  down. 

Van  Buren  estimated  the  amount  of  money  due 
by  States  and  corporations  to  English  creditors  at 
$200,000,000.  His  estimate  was  probably  not  greatly 
exaggerated.  Certainly  as  much  as  $12,000,000  in 
interest  was  due  each  year  to  English  creditors. 
The  merchants  of  the  great  towns  regularly  bought 
their  goods  on  long  time,  sold  them  on  time  to  the 
shopkeepers  of  the  villages  and  hamlets,  and  these 
in  turn  sold  on  credit  to  their  customers.  Not  less 
than  $100,000,000  was  thus  distributed  over  the 
country.  It  was  due  any  day  in  London  or  Liver 
pool.  The  world  seemed  to  "take  stock"  in  the 
new  Republic,  particularly  when  the  returns  were 
large  and  prompt  in  appearing.  And  now  that  the 
Federal  Government  was  not  a  borrower,  the  States 
became  the  heirs  of  the  confidence  of  the  capitalists 
who,  not  comprehending  the  difference  between  the 
National  and  the  State  Governments  in  the  United 
States,  expected  that  the  authorities  in  Washington 
would  bring  due  pressure  to  bear  on  local  authori 
ties  that  might  turn  indifferent  when  crops  were 
bad. 

All  these  things  led  to  an  inflated  state  of  things. 
Jackson  had  seen  the  dangerous  tendency,  and  his 
specie  circular  had  been  applied  in  1836  in  the 
hope  of  mending  matters.  But  the  people  who 


DISTRESS  AND  REACTION          101 

bought  lands  had  no  gold  or  silver.  The  effect  of 
the  circular  was  to  compel  Western  bankers  to 
call  on  their  Eastern  correspondents  for  metallic 
money.  All  the  specie  in  the  Eastern  vaults 
amounted  to  only  119,000,000,  a  sum  not  in  excess 
of  what  it  had  been  twenty  years  before,  when  the 
paper  money  in  circulation  was  not  half  so  great. 
Just  as  the  West  asked  for  more  hard  money  Eng 
lish  bankers  and  other  business  men  called  sharply 
for  payment  of  outstanding  debts  due  by  leading 
business  men  in  the  East.  Both  demands  could  not 
be  met  at  the  same  time.  The  bubble  had  been 
pricked. 

To  make  matters  worse,  the  wheat  crop  of  the 
Middle  States  and  of  the  South  failed  utterly,  and 
the  farmers  were  compelled  to  import  grain  on  credit 
for  the  next  year's  seeding.  The  cotton  output  was 
large,  but  the  price  fell  from  twenty  to  ten  cents  a 
pound.  Corn  and  meat  were  plentiful  in  the  West ; 
the  means  of  transportation  were,  however,  lacking. 
There  was  famine  and  plenty  in  the  land  at  the  same 
time.  Business  came  to  a  standstill,  all  forward 
movements  stopped,  and  the  banks  closed  their  doors. 

From  a  winter  of  greatest  plenty  and  most  amazing 
expectations  the  people,  particularly  the  poor  of  the 
cities  and  mill  towns,  passed  into  a  summer  and  au 
tumn  of  positive  want  and  starvation.  With  flour  at 
twelve  dollars  a  barrel,  the  New  York  price,  and  with 
wages  declining  every  day  or  industrial  operations 
suspended  altogether,  the  lot  of  the  worker  was  hard. 
Riots  were  of  weekly  occurrence,  and  the  greatest 
business  houses  of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  even 


102        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

New  Orleans,  where  cotton  was  expected  to  save  men, 
declared  themselves  bankrupt  and  closed  their  doors. 
Men  who  had  clamored  against  Jackson  or  Biddle  in 
the  time  of  distress  three  years  before  now  looked 
upon  that  crisis  as  only  a  flurry.  Everything  seemed 
out  of  joint  and  the  future  gave  no  assurance  of 
speedy  recovery.  The  East,  which  had  condemned 
the  West  for  their  stay  laws  against  the  panic  of 
1819,  now  clamored  for  a  federal  stay  law  and  urged 
Van  Buren  to  suspend  the  specie  circular.  The  Presi 
dent  refused  to  offer  any  relief,  and  other  failures 
and  other  risks  followed.  Before  the  summer  had 
well  begun  every  bank  in  the  country  suspended 
specie  payment,  and  a  little  later  local  business  men's 
associations  issued  notes  or  due  bills  in  small  de 
nominations  which  were  accepted  as  money.  East, 
South,  and  West  the  commercial  and  financial  panic 
held  the  country  fast  in  its  grip.  Speculations  fell 
flat,  obligations  were  void,  and  men  turned  to  the 
simpler  forms  of  life  to  regain  their  equilibrium. 
Barter  took  the  place  of  former  methods  of  exchange. 
People  blamed  the  banks ;  some  cried  out  that  the 
monopolistic  methods  of  business  had  been  the  cause. 
The  Whigs  maintained  that  the  panic  and  distress 
were  due  to  the  blunders  and  crimes  of  the  party  in 
power.  Benton  in  reply  declared  that  the  paper 
money  and  stock-jobbing  systems  of  the  last  few 
years  had  been  the  cause.  Van  Buren  called  Con 
gress  together  in  extra  session  in  September,  1837, 
in  order,  as  he  said,  to  devise  means  of  saving  the 
Government  itself  from  bankruptcy.  But  he  could  not 
place  the  blame  on  the  preceding  Administration,  as 


DISTRESS  AND  REACTION  103 

his  opponents  delighted  to  do ;  he  only  said  it  was 
all  because  of  "  over-action  in  all  departments  of 
business."  Congress  suspended  the  distribution  of  the 
surplus  revenue  among  the  States,  issued  notes  to  the 
amount  of  ten  million  dollars  to  meet  the  obligations 
of  the  Government,  and  took  measures  for  the  safety 
of  the  public  funds  in  banks  which  could  not  pay 
their  debts.  Gradually  during  the  next  year  the  signs 
of  recovery  appeared.  Rise  of  prices  in  Europe,  a 
good  cotton  crop,  and  the  passing  of  the  panicky 
state  of  mind  enabled  the  banks  to  resume  specie 
payments,  and  the  mills  of  the  East  to  open  their 
doors.  But  the  public  was  in  doubt  whether  the  ruin 
of  the  National  Bank,  the  issuing  of  the  specie  cir 
cular  by  Jackson,  or  the  lack  of  ability  on  the  part 
of  Van  Buren  had  been  the  cause  of  the  calamities 
of  the  year  1837.  And  as  it  took  years  for  men  and 
business  houses  to  regain  their  former  mutual  con 
fidence,  there  was  soreness  and  hesitation  everywhere 
until  after  1840. 

The  financial  situation  was,  therefore,  the  one 
thing  with  which  Van  Buren  had  to  deal  during  most 
of  his  term.  After  the  emergency  measures  had 
passed,  he  gave  earnest  attention  to  the  enacting  of 
a  law  which  would  create  responsible  agencies  in  the 
larger  cities  for  the  receipt  and  expenditure  of  the 
public  moneys.  The  purpose  was  to  avoid  concentra 
tion  and  monopoly  such  as  the  National  Bank  had 
maintained,  and  to  keep  the  control  of  the  finances  in 
the  hands  of  the  Government.  It  was  called  the  In 
dependent  Treasury  system.  The  President  pressed 
the  measure  before  a  divided  Congress  and  without 


104         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

the  support  of  any  concerted  or  strong  public  opin 
ion.  To  the  surprise  of  many,  Calhoun,  the  bitterest 
of  his  enemies,  came  to  his  assistance.  This  meant  the 
support  of  most  of  the  cotton  and  tobacco  planters. 
Yet  the  measure  failed  of  passage  during  the  sessions 
of  1837-38  and  1838-39. 

Van  Buren  did  not  know  how  to  appeal  to  the 
popular  heart  when  powerful  congressional  leaders 
and  shrewd  business  men  pressed  too  hard.  He  sim 
ply  adhered  to  his  Independent  Treasury  Bill  against 
all  opposition,  fair  and  unfair.  A  group  of  conserv 
ative  Democrats  broke  away  from  his  leadership  in 
1838  and  deprived  him  of  a  majority ;  in  the  next 
Congress  he  was  no  stronger,  and  the  one  measure 
of  reform  which  he  urged  failed  to  pass  before  June, 
1840.  Another  legacy  of  Jackson,  his  "illustrious 
predecessor,"  was  a  war  with  the  Seminole  Indians, 
who  resisted  removal  to  the  western  frontier;  and 
before  1842  the  suppression  of  these  desperate  na 
tives  and  their  slave  allies,  runaways  from  the  Geor 
gia  plantations,  cost  the  Government  §40,000,000, 
most  of  which  had  to  be  borrowed  at  high  rates  of 
interest. 

Even  more  threatening  than  the  Seminole  troubles 
was  the  Texas  problem.  The  last  act  of  Jackson's 
official  life  was  to  recognize  the  independence  of  that 
aspiring  State.  But  this  was  only  preliminary  to  the 
real  purposes  of  Texas  and  her  agents,  who  pressed 
Van  Buren  in  the  summer  of  1837  for  annexation  to 
the  United  States ;  though  these  same  agents  wrote 
home  that  if  annexation  did  not  succeed,  the  South 
would  break  away  from  the  Union,  and  that  if  it  did 


DISTRESS  AND  REACTION  105 

succeed,  the  North  would  withdraw  from  the  federal 
compact.  So  that  while  Calhoun  and  his  friends 
aided  the  President  in  his  financial  measures,  they  at 
the  same  time  importuned  him  to  help  the  South  by 
adding  another  pro-slavery  State  to  the  Union.  This 
was  not  the  first  time  this  question  had  embarrassed 
a  president.  As  already  seen,  Clay  had  denounced 
Monroe  for  giving  away  that  princely  domain ;  Ben- 
ton  and  Van  Buren  had  warred  upon  Adams  and 
Clay  in  1826—28  for  not  compelling  a  restoration, 
and  under  this  pressure  and  that  of  the  South  in  gen 
eral,  Adams  had  sought  in  vain  to  purchase  Texas; 
under  Jackson  the  problem  was  several  times  taken 
up,  and  as  much  as  15,000,000  was  offered.  Still  the 
astute  General  had  steered  clear  of  trouble  when  an 
nexation  " with  war"  was  offered  in  1836. 

Yaii  Buren  likewise  delayed  and  risked  his  South 
ern  popularity.  Meanwhile  a  revolt  against  the  Brit 
ish  Government  broke  out  in  Canada,  and  thousands 
of  Americans  along  the  border,  from  Maine  to  Wis 
consin,  lent  open  assistance  to  their  "  oppressed  " 
neighbors.  Van  Buren  remained  strictly  neutral. 
With  much  difficulty  was  the  peace  maintained,  and 
at  the  expense  of  many  savage  attacks  upon  the  Ad 
ministration  for  its  un-American  policy  and  lack  of 
sympathy  with  men  who  fought  for  "  freedom." 

While  the  President  was  seeking  to  reform  the 
national  currency  and  restrain  the  imperialistic  tend 
encies  of  his  countrymen,  one  great  State,  New 
York,  under  the  leadership  of  Silas  Wright,  was 
showing  the  country  what  could  be  done  locally  to 
make  banking  safe.  In  1829  a  law  was  enacted  com- 


106         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

pelling  every  newly  chartered  bank  to  contribute  a 
certain  percentage  qf  its  income  to  a  common  safety 
fund.  The  disasters  of  1837  showed  these  reserves  to 
be  too  small,  and  in  1839  every  bank  in  the  State 
was  required  to  deposit  with  the  Treasury  securities 
enough  to  protect  all  notes  to  be  put  into  circula 
tion.  At  the  same  time  any  group  of  capitalists  who 
would  conform  to  the  law  might  open  a  bank  with 
out  let  or  hindrance,  which  had  the  effect  of  putting 
financial  operations  on  simple  business  principles, 
removing  the  political  motive  which  had  wrought  so 
much  damage  to  innocent  depositors.  During  the 
next  decade  the  New  York  example  had  great  influ 
ence,  and  Massachusetts,  Maryland,  South  Carolina, 
and  other  older  States  instituted  safe  and  conserva 
tive  banking  systems. 

But  while  these  communities  learned  slowly  the 
lesson  of  careful  finance,  Michigan,  Mississippi,  and 
other  States,  East  and  West,  hard  pressed  by  their 
circumstances  and  the  overwhelming  debts  which 
they  piled  up  till  about  1840,  repudiated  or  failed  to 
meet  their  obligations.  And  when  suits  were  brought 
by  domestic  or  foreign  creditors,  state  legislatures 
simply  declined  to  pay  and  claimed  immunity  from 
federal  pressure  under  the  Eleventh  Amendment  to 
the  National  Constitution.  Nor  were  the  resources 
of  the  Western  communities  equal  to  the  discharge 
of  their  onerous  burdens.  To  have  attempted  to  force 
upon  the  people  the  payment  of  the  debts  their  lead 
ers  had  fixed  upon  them  would  have  caused  wholesale 
migrations  to  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and  Texas.  The  peo 
ple  of  the  West,  of  the  country  as  a  whole,  perhaps, 


DISTRESS  AND  REACTION  107 

were  still  in  the  position  of  frontiersmen  as  compared 
to  Europeans.  They  needed  all  the  time  more  capi 
tal  than  they  could  repay  in  many  years,  and  they 
were  not  as  yet  disciplined  to  the  point  of  bearing 
heavy  burdens. 

With  so  much  distress  in  the  country  and  with 
the  Administration  overburdened  with  problems, 
Clay,  Adams,  and  Webster  organized  the  opposi 
tion  in  Congress  and  throughout  the  country  very 
much  as  Van  Buren,  Calhoun,  and  Jackson  had  done 
in  1826—28.  The  President,  they  said,  was  no  friend 
of  the  people  ;  he  had  not  so  much  as  mentioned  their 
case  in  his  messages  to  Congress.  He  was  likened 
to  a  sea  captain  who  seizes  the  lifeboats  on  a  dis 
tressed  ship  in  midocean  and,  saving  himself  and 
crew,  leaves  the  passengers  to  the  mercies  of  the  an 
gry  waves.  Clay  said  the  panic  had  been  due  entirely 
to  *he  ungodly  Jackson  and  his  foolish  successor ; 
Webster  saw  the  sole  cause  of  the  ills  of  the  time 
in  the  foolhardy  policy  of  the  last  half-dozen  years. 
John  Quincy  Adams  never  tired  of  ridiculing  the 
puerile  maneuvers  of  backwoods  politicians  whose 
ignorance  amounted  almost  to  high  crime.  To  him 
the  Independent  Treasury  Bill  was  an  attempt  to 
separate  the  Government  from  business,  as  futile  as 
to  try  to  divorce  the  law  from  the  judges  in  the  ad 
ministration  of  justice. 

Business  men  were  appealed  to  to  help  avert  the 
further  catastrophes  which  a  Democratic  Adminis 
tration  would  surely  inflict.  Distressed  planters  were 
reminded  of  the  low  price  of  cotton,  all  the  friends 
of  the  former  National  Bank  were  told  to  remember 


108         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

the  war  on  the  Bank  which  had  ruined  them  and  the 
country  at  the  same  time.  Indignation  meetings  were 
held  in  the  East  to  denounce  Van  Buren  and  the 
"  Loco-focos,"  a  term  of  reproach  applied  generally  to 
the  party  in  power;  Henry  Clay  made  a  tour  of  the 
Eastern  States  thanking  God  that  he  had  been 
spared  to  help  in  undoing  the  work  of  Jackson  ; 
Webster  canvassed  the  West  in  the  hope  of  restoring 
the  minds  of  the  people  to  their  wonted  sanity  and  a 
renewal  of  the  alliance  of  West  and  East,  on  which 
alone  depended  the  prospect  of  good  government  in 
the  United  States.  The  Whig  party  was  now  a  pow 
erful  machine,  and  its  leaders  would  take  the  people 
into  their  confidence.  "  The  honesty  of  plain  men  " 
became  a  favorite  expression  of  the  time  ;  and 
Adams,  Clay,  and  Webster  repeated  the  experiment 
of  Jackson,  Calhoun,  and  Benton  in  1828,  in  a  four- 
year  campaign  against  Van  Buren.  A  disinterested 
philosopher  might  have  said  that  it  was  poetic  jus 
tice  for  the  persecuted  Adams  of  1828  to  appear  in 
the  role  of  persecutor  in  1840. 

Though  the  President  was  an  abler  politician  than 
Adams  had  been  in  the  former  struggle,  he  was 
hardly  able  to  parry  the  blows  of  Clay  and  his  East 
ern  allies,  especially  after  the  elections  of  1838,  when 
both  houses  of  Congress  were  lost  to  the  Adminis 
tration.  Calhoun,  Benton,  and  Silas  Wright  made  a 
strong  fight  on  behalf  of  the  Democrats.  To  the  In 
dependent  Treasury  measure  they  added  the  preemp 
tion  and  graduation  bills,  which  commanded  almost 
unanimous  support  in  the  West,  and  at  last  secured 
the  passage  of  all  three  in  June,  1840.  Though  Clay 


DISTRESS  AND  REACTION  109 

and  his  party  waged  a  powerful  opposition  through 
four  full  years,  they  had  110  definite  program  to  offer. 
The  groups  of  their  organization  were  as  yet  poorly 
knit  together.  Their  popular  appeal  was  "  to  drive  the 
Goths  and  Vandals"  from  the  capital.  The  "new 
Napoleon  and  his  minions,"  according  to  another 
historical  comparison,  must  give  way  to  the  old  re 
gime,  to  gentlemen  "  who  knew  how  to  govern."  And 
consequently  the  new  alignments  were  much  the 
same  as  those  which  had  supported  Adams  and  Clay 
in  1828,  the  South  and  West  uniting  on  the  "  re 
form  "  Treasury  system  and  Benton's  land  bills, 
while  the  East  and  certain  conservative  elements  of 
the  West  and  South  indorsed,  tentatively,  at  least, 
the  "  American  System,"  or  at  least  lent  willing  ears 
to  the  eloquence  of  Clay. 

Still  the  people  hardly  knew  whom  to  believe,  and 
they  grouped  themselves  in  the  different  States  in  a 
way  which  seemed  unlike  the  earlier  combinations. 
Thick-and-thin  followers  of  Van  Buren  called  them 
selves  Democrats  and  insisted  that  they  were  the  dis 
ciples  of  Thomas  Jefferson ;  the  organizers  of  the 
opposition  to  Jackson  in  his  war  on  the  Bank  had 
claimed  to  be  National  Republicans,  though  they  ac 
cepted  with  pride  the  name  of  Whigs  after  1836. 
They  asserted  also  that  they  were  the  followers  of 
the  great  Virginia  democrat;  perhaps  the  historian 
would  be  compelled  to  deny  that  either  faction  was 
democratic. 

As  the  Democrats  were  almost  unanimously  in 
favor  of  the  renomination  of  Van  Buren,  it  was  not 
difficult  to  manage  their  convention  of  that  year. 


110         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Nor  was  the  platform  the  occasion  of  any  serious 
disagreement.  It  stated  for  the  first  time  that  the 
party  was  opposed  to  internal  improvements,  a  pro 
tective  tariff,  and  the  assumption  of  the  debts  of 
bankrupt  States.  In  all  these  the  West  was  much 
interested.  But  on  the  subject  of  slavery  it  was  defi 
nitely  declared  that  the  Federal  Government  had  no 
power  of  interference.  For  the  last  time  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  ante-bellum  Democracy,  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  was  declared  to  be  an  item  of  the 
party  faith.  Van  Buren  took  many  risks  in  this  un- 
We stern  program ;  though  the  panic  of  1837  was 
doubtless  his  heaviest  burden,  as  the  Whigs  never 
tired  of  asserting  and  repeating. 

The  Whigs  met  in  convention  at  Harrisburg  in 
December,  1839.  Divided  on  the  great  questions  of 
the  day,  they  feared  to  nominate  their  one  masterful 
leader,  and  in  weak  imitation  of  the  Jackson  men  of 
1828  turned  to  William  Henry  Harrison,  a  frontier 
general  of  no  great  ability  or  reputation.  John  Ty 
ler,  a  Virginia  politician  of  the  Calhoun  school,  was 
made  the  candidate  for  the  Vice-Presidency.  On  the 
matter  of  a  program  it  was  impossible  for  the  Whig 
groups  to  agree,  and  consequently  they  offered  no 
platform  at  all.  But  the  West  received  notice  from 
the  leaders  that  in  the  event  of  success,  the  debts  of 
their  States  would  be  laid  upon  the  broad  shoulders 
of  the  Union  and  that  internal  improvements  would 
be  resumed.  In  the  East  the  restoration  of  the 
National  Bank  and  the  renewal  of  the  high  tariff 
schedules  of  1832  were  the  assurances  of  men  like 
Webster  and  Clay.  With  differences  so  great  divid- 


DISTRESS  AND  REACTION  111 

ing  the  opposition  it  was  impossible  to  make  a  cam 
paign  on  the  issues  of  the  time,  serious  as  these 
were  acknowledged  to  be. 

The  contest  which  followed  was  unlike  any  other 
in  the  history  of  the  Union.  "  Hard  cider,"  "  coon 
skins,"  and  "  log  cabins  "  became  the  slogans  of  the 
campaign,  because  once  in  his  life  General  Harrison 
had  lived  in  a  cabin  and  "  drunk  the  beverage  of 
the  common  people."  Van  Buren  could  not  meet 
such  cries.  His  canvass  became  a  defense,  and  his 
followers  half  acknowledged  their  defeat  when  it 
was  seen  that  the  West  rallied  to  Harrison.  The 
plain  citizen  was  carried  off  his  feet,  and  he  voted 
against  the  man  in  the  White  House  who  was  said 
to  use  gold  and  silver  on  his  table  and  dress  himself 
before  costly  French  mirrors.  Nor  was  he  certain  in 
his  more  serious  vein  whether  after  all  Jackson  had 
not  made  a  sad  blunder  in  choosing  the  New  York 
politician  to  carry  out  his  policies.  Without  real  ar 
gument  or  any  serious  presentation  of  the  issues  the 
Whigs,  appealing  to  what  were  considered  Western 
prejudices,  built  log  cabins  on  the  public  squares, 
wore  coon  skin  caps,  and  sang  Van  Buren  out  of 
office  to  the  tune  of  "  Typ  and  Ty,"  "  Little  Van  is 
a  used-up  man,"  and  other  like  vanities. 

The  result  was  an  overwhelming  victory  for  Har 
rison  and  Tyler,  the  President  carrying  only  one 
New  England  State  and  Virginia,  South  Carolina, 
Alabama,  Arkansas,  Missouri,  and  Illinois,  and  re 
ceiving  only  sixty  electoral  votes  out  of  a  total  of 
294.  The  popular  vote  was  2,400,000,  almost  twice 
as  great  as  in  any  previous  election.  The  people  were 


EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

learning  to  vote  if  nothing  more.  Van  Buren  and 
his  lieutenants,  including  Calhoun,  were  chagrined 
and  humiliated.  The  West  had  returned  the  ene 
mies  of  Jackson  to  power  and,  perhaps  unintention 
ally,  had  written  failure  across  the  work  of  their 
"hero."  Thus  Clay  had  turned  the  backwoodsmen 
and  their  methods  against  the  original  backwoods 
statesman,  and  brought  about  a  restoration  of  the 
old  regime.  Nicholas  Biddle  and  all  his  financial 
friends  rejoiced.  Webster  and  New  England  looked 
once  again  to  a  new  era  of  protection ;  and  the  in 
ternal  improvements  men  of  the  West  and  the  up- 
country,  having  been  overwhelmed  by  the  panic  in 
their  various  State  undertakings,  turned  their  ex 
pectations  once  more  toward  the  National  Treasury. 
The  manufacturing  and  the  financial  interests  had 
in  reality  come  into  control  again,  and  with  the 
assistance  of  the  plain  people  of  the  back-country. 
Clay  had  been  the  architect  of  the  new  structure, 
while  Jackson  and  Calhoun  mourned  alike  the  de 
feat  of  Van  Buren. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

Edwin  M.  Shepard's  Life  of  Martin  Van  Buren,  in  American 
Statesmen  series  is  the  best  study  of  the  Van  Buren  Administra 
tion.  J.  Schouler's  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  iv;  G.  S.  Cal- 
lender's  Selections  from  the  Economic  History  of  the  United  States 
(1909) ;  G.  S.  Calender's  Early  Transportation  and  Banking  Enter 
prises,  in  Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  vol.  17;  W.  A.  Scott's 
Repudiation  of  State  Debts  (1893),  and  the  biographies  and  other 
works  cited  at  the  close  of  the  last  chapter  will  give  the  reader 
material  for  further  study. 

Robert  Mayo's  Political  Sketches  of  Eight  Years  in  Washington 
(1839);  Mrs.  M.  B.  Smith's  First  Forty  Years  of  Washington 


DISTRESS  AND  REACTION  113 

Society  (Hunt,  1906);  and  J.  F.  H.  Claiborne's  The  Life  and  Times 
of  General  Sam  Dale  (1860)  present  most  interesting  pictures  of 
men  and  manners.  For  railroad,  canal,  and  banking  ventures, 
J.  L.  Bingwalt,  Development  of  Transportation  Systems;  W.  F. 
Gephart,  Transportation  and  Industrial  Development  in  the  Middle 
West;  J.  P.  Dunn,  Indiana,  Rufus  King,  Ohio,  T.  M.  Cooley, 
Michigan,  in  American  Commonwealths  series;  Thomas  Ford,  His 
tory  of  Illinois  (1854) ;  J.  F.  H.  Claiborne,  History  of  Mississippi 
(1880);  W.  C.  Brewer,  Alabama,  Her  History,  Resources,  etc. 
(1872);  and  J.  G.  Baldwin,  The  Flush  Times  in  Alabama  and 
Mississippi  (1853). 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE    MILITANT    SOUTH 

WILLIAM  HENRY  HARRISON  and  the  Whig  party 
came  to  power  in  1841  without  a  program.  The  men 
who  had  driven  Martin  Van  Buren  from  office  in 
1840  were  in  as  much  doubt  what  to  do  for  the 
country  as  the  Jackson  men  had  been  in  1829.  Clay 
had  said  during  the  campaign  that  he  might  restore 
the  United  States  Bank,  and  he  had  said  he  might 
not  do  so ;  the  Eastern  Whigs  had  declared  for  a 
higher  tariff  in  1842,  when  the  compromise  of  1833 
would  expire,  while  the  Southern  Whigs  had  de 
nied  that  such  a  move  would  be  made ;  the  Western 
men  who  had  deserted  Van  Buren  for  a  log-cabin 
leader  demanded  now  as  ever  internal  improvements, 
though  their  Southern  allies  bitterly  opposed  all  such 
propositions.  With  counsels  so  divided  Harrison 
turned  readily  to  Henry  Clay,  who  shaped  the  inau 
gural  and  filled  the  Cabinet  with  his  political  friends. 
Congress  was  called  in  extra  session  for  the  last  of 
May,  1841,  when  an  improvised  plan  of  action  would 
be  offered  and  perhaps  enacted  into  law.  The  main 
items  were  to  be  a  new  National  Bank,  a  higher 

O 

tariff,  and  the  distribution  among  the  States  of  the 
proceeds  of  the  public  land  sales.  This  would  enable 
States  to  construct  their  own  public  improvements 
and  at  the  same  time  avoid  a  rupture  between 
Southern  and  Western  Whigs.  Thus  the  chief  items 


THE  MILITANT  SOUTH  115 

of  the  old  Clay  and  Adams  "  American  System  "  was 
to  be  reenacted  by  a  Congress  whose  majority  was 
none  too  large  and  more  than  heterogeneous  in  char 
acter. 

But  before  the  national  legislature  met,  the  Pres 
ident  had  died  and  John  Tyler  had  become  the  head 
of  the  Administration.  Virginia  politics  were  at  that 
time  and  long  after  dominated  by  a  state  banking 
system,  and  both  Virginia  and  the  lower  South  op 
posed  all  forms  of  tariff  protection.  The  new  Presi 
dent  had  been  nominated  by  the  Whigs  in  spite  of 
his  political  views,  and  only  in  the  hope  that  he  might 
carry  his  State,  in  which  they  had  been  disappointed. 
Clay  thought,  however,  that  he  could  control  the 
Administration,  and  undertook  with  the  assistance 
of  the  Cabinet  to  bring  all  into  a  harmonious  sup 
port  of  his  "  system."  The  law  creating  the  Inde 
pendent  Treasury,  for  which  Jackson  and  Van  Buren 
had  labored  industriously  for  six  years  before  its 
final  passage,  was  promptly  repealed.  In  place  of  the 
Independent  Treasury  there  was  to  be  a  National 
Bank,  but  the  President  was  reported  to  be  hostile 
to  such  a  bank  unless  it  should  be  located  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  and  the  consent  of  the  States 
should  be  made  necessary  before  branches  could  be 
established  anywhere.  Aware  of  Tyler's  scruples  on 
this  and  other  measures,  Clay  marshaled  his  follow 
ers  in  both  houses,  held  his  friends  in  the  Cabinet 
in  his  firm  grasp,  and  was  reported  to  have  declared : 
"  Tyler  dares  not  resist  me ;  I  will  drive  him  before 
me."  Tyler  was  not  the  man  to  be  driven,  and  mean 
while  Calhoun,  Benton,  and  their  friends  were  rally- 


116         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

ing  around  him  in  the  hope  of  breaking  down  once 
again  the  program  of  Clay. 

A  bank  law  was  passed.  On  the  16th  of  August 
it  was  vetoed,  and  there  ensued  another  party  break 
very  much  like  that  which  Calhoun  led  in  1831. 
Many  Southern  Whigs  supported  the  President; 
Eastern  Whigs  burned  Tyler  in  effigy  as  "  the 
traitor."  A  second  bank  bill  was  passed  only  to  meet 
another  veto ;  and  the  Clay  scheme  for  the  distribu 
tion  of  the  proceeds  of  the  land  sales,  on  which  he 
had  set  his  heart,  was  so  mutilated  by  amendments 
that  it  could  not  serve  the  purpose  of  its  friends. 
Anger  and  denunciation  were  the  order  of  the  day  in 
Washington.  Clay  called  a  conference  of  the  mem 
bers  of  Tyler's  Cabinet  early  in  September,  and  ad 
vised  all  to  resign  at  once  in  order  to  isolate  their 
chief.  The  advice  was  followed  by  all  save  Web 
ster,  who  retained  his  post  and  otherwise  refused  to 
accept  the  dictation  of  the  Kentucky  leader.  Cal 
houn,  Henry  A.  Wise,  William  C.  Rives,  and  other 
leaders  of  Congress  applauded  the  President  and 
Webster.  Congress  adjourned  on  September  13  in 
the  worst  possible  humor.  Excitement  now  ran  high 
throughout  the  country.  Whig  meetings  were  held 
everywhere,  some  to  denounce,  some  to  defend  the  Vir 
ginian  President.  The  congressional  elections  came 
on  and  the  voters  divided  sharply.  But  the  Demo 
crats  won,  which  meant  that  the  next  Congress  would 
be  deadlocked  —  the  Senate  Whig,  and  the  House 
Democratic.  Under  these  circumstances  Tyler  gath 
ered  about  him  a  Cabinet  to  his  own  liking  and 
planned  a  forward  step  in  the  national  policy.  At 


THE  MILITANT  SOUTH  117 

the  regular  session  of  Congress  a  protective  tariff 
law  which  restored  many  of  the  high  duties  of  1832 
was  enacted.  Tyler  gave  his  assent,  perhaps  in  the 
hope  of  holding  his  New  England  friends  like  Web 
ster.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  next  Congress 
would  be  at  least  half  anti-tariff,  this  move  on  the 
part  of  the  Whigs  was  resented  in  the  South,  where 
leaders  like  Robert  Barnwell  Rhett  still  spoke  openly 
of  secession  in  case  the  old  protectionist  policy 
should  be  resumed. 

The  lines  were  being  drawn  for  the  next  presi 
dential  race.  Clay  came  back  to  Congress  in  Decem 
ber,  1841,  deeply  resentful  toward  the  President 
and  displeased  at  Webster.  Having  carried  through 
Congress  the  tariff  bill  already  mentioned,  he  rose 
on  March  31  to  offer  "  the  last  motion  I  shall 
ever  make  in  this  body,"  and  to  read  his  farewell 
address  after  the  manner  of  his  great  antagonist 
Jackson,  who  had  sent  to  Congress  a  similar  mes 
sage  on  his  retirement  in  March,  1837.  It  was  an 
affecting  scene  as  the  able  and  dramatic  orator 
prayed  "  the  most  precious  blessings  upon  the  Sen 
ate,"  even  upon  Calhoun,  who  at  the  close  extended 
his  hand  for  the  first  time  in  several  years.  u  Sober 
old  Senators  as  well  as  ladies  in  the  galleries  shed 
tears  at  the  scene "  ;  yet  it  was  known  that  Clay 
would  seek  the  Presidency  two  years  later.  Calhoun, 
likewise,  retired  "  forever  "  from  the  august  legisla 
tive  assembly,  twelve  months  later,  the  better  to  lay 
his  plans  for  the  Democratic  nomination  in  1844. 
Though  the  South  was  not  ready  to  unite  in  support 
of  its  greatest  statesman,  its  leaders  were  ready  to 


118         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

adopt  his  views  and  carry  out  his  policy.  The  South, 
with  its  cotton,  tobacco,  and  sugar  plantations  yieldr 
ing  their  increasing  annual  returns,  was  preparing 
for  another  effort  at  getting  control  of  the  National 
Government.  And  changes  of  sentiment  as  well  as 
economic  development  favored  her  in  the  struggle. 

In  Virginia  the  reforms  of  1829  had  been  inade 
quate.  The  slavery  problem  was  still  a  burning  ques 
tion,  and  the  Nat  Turner  insurrection  of  1831,  in 
which  a  few  slaves  rose  against  their  masters  and 
killed  many  men,  women,  and  children,  forced  a 
reconsideration.  Again  the  difficult  problem  was  de 
clared  insoluble.  Thomas  K.  Dew,  a  professor  of  po 
litical  science  in  William  and  Mary  College,  gave 
the  deciding  counsel  in  elaborate  testimony  be 
fore  a  committee  of  the  legislature,  which  was 
enlarged  and  published  in  book  form  in  May,  1832. 
He  contended  that  slavery  was  a  positive  good ;  that 
negroes  could  not  live  in  the  South  except  in  a  state 
of  bondage  ;  and  that  for  the  State  of  Virginia,  at 
least,  it  was  a  most  profitable  institution.  The  time 
had  passed,  he  contended,  for  men  to  believe  or  teach 
the  fallacies  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
Society,  certainly  Southern  society,  was  taking  on  a 
stratified  form  in  which  all  men  had  their .  definite 
places ;  and  the  North,  too,  was  fast  drifting  in  the 
same  direction,  because  of  the  influence  of  their  grow 
ing  industries,  in  which  it  was  essential  that  some 
should  be  masters  of  great  plants  and  direct  the 
labor  of  thousands  of  people.  Few  books  ever  influ 
enced  Southern  life  so  much  as  did  this  little  word 
of  clear  reasoning  and  convincing  statistics. 


THE  MILITANT  SOUTH  119 

A  year  later  Calhoun  was  offering  the  same  argu 
ments  in  the  United  States  Senate ;  South  Carolina 
had  already  come  in  a  practical  way  to  the  same 
conclusion.  North  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mis 
sissippi,  and  Louisiana  accepted  the  teaching  that 
slavery  was  a  beneficent  social  arrangement.  In 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  where  James  G.  Birney 
and  John  Rankin  had  long  worked  for  gradual 
emancipation,  sentiment  rapidly  crystallized  about 
the  same  dogma.  Southern  anti-slavery  leaders  emi 
grated  to  Ohio  during  the  next  few  years,  "  leaving 
Ephraim  joined  to  his  idols  "  ;  and  Southern  men  in 
Congress  now  replied  with  increasing  earnestness  to 
the  petitions  which  came  from  Northern  abolitionists. 
In  1837  it  was  decided  not  to  receive  such  petitions, 
and  John  Quincy  Adams  was  given  his  great  theme 
for  agitation ;  the  United  States  mails  were  also 
closed  to  abolitionist  literature  intended  for  South 
ern  distribution.  The  representatives  of  the  great 
region  which  stretched  from  Baltimore  to  New  Or 
leans  and  extended  from  the  coast  to  the  mountains, 
united  almost  to  a  man  in  defense  of  "  the  institu 
tions  of  the  South,"  and  he  who  offered  argument  or 
example  to  the  contrary  was  then  unwelcome  and 
later  compelled  to  hold  his  tongue  or  emigrate. 

Calhoun  now  became  the  undisputed  leader  of  the 
plantation  interests  of  the  South,  and  few  men  were 
better  fitted  for  the  great  commission.  A  keen  and 
able  debater  and  an  enthusiastic  Southerner,  a  com 
bination  in  himself  of  the  up-country  ideals  and  the 
low-country  purposes,  he  had  become  the  idol  of 
South  Carolina.  Conciliatory  in  manner  and  pure 


120         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

in  all  his  public  and  private  life,  he  won  the  respect 
and  friendship  of  the  best  men  in  the  North,  like  the 
Lowells  and  Winthrops  of  Massachusetts,  and  of 
Senators  Allen,  Hannegan,  Breese,  and  the  Dodges 
of  the  Northwest.  Devoted  to  the  ideal  of  a  great 
American  Union  which  he  had  made  strong  at  the 
close  of  the  second  war  with  England,  he  was  willing 
always  to  yield  something  to  the  West  if  only  his 
"one  institution"  be  left  alone.  Badly  treated  by 
Jackson  and  Van  Buren,  he  had  yet  forgiven  and 
joined  hands  with  them  both  in  1840,  in  the  hope 
that  the  power  of  Clay  and  his  Eastern  allies  might 
be  broken.  In  Congress  and  out  he  was  the  leader 
of  the  South  as  that  section  began  to  gird  her  loins 
for  the  fight  over  tariff,  slavery,  and  expansion  in 
1840-44. 

While  the  South  was  coming  to  one  opinion  on 
the  great  question  of  slavery,  the  West  had  been 
reviving  her  old  ambitions  and  claims  for  more 
lands.  So  long  as  there  was  plenty  of  free  lands 
and  wide  wildernesses,  the  Westerner  felt  that  the 
American  Republic  was  a  free  country;  but  when 
these  began  to  fail  he  imagined  himself  hemmed  in 
and  stifled.  In  1812  he  had  demanded  Canada  and 
Florida.  He  secured  only  the  latter  in  1819,  and  that 
after  giving  up  Texas.  The  ink  was  hardly  dry  on 
the  parchment  of  the  treaty  of  that  year  before 
leading  Westerners  began  their  campaign  for  the 
"  reannexation "  of  Texas.  Stephen  Austin,  who 
settled  in  Texas,  and  Sam  Houston,  who  deserted 
his  wife  for  a  home  on  the  distant  Southwestern 
frontier,  kept  the  question  alive.  Thousands  of 


THE   MILITANT  SOUTH  121 

Southerners  and  Westerners  poured  into  the  new 
cotton  region  between  1828  and  1836,  and  in  the 
latter  year  they  fought  with  the  Mexicans  the  battle 
of  San  Jacinto,  which  gave  Texas  her  freedom.  A 
new  American  Republic  with  a  pro-slavery  consti 
tution  was  speedily  organized.  Though  Van  Buren 
evaded  the  issue,  Calhoun  and  the  South  urged 
immediate  annexation. 

There  was  thus  a  Southern  call  to  the  isolated 
President  in  1842  to  take  up  the  Texas  problem. 
Moreover,  Virginia  under  the  apportionment  of 
1841  lost  five  Representatives  in  the  National  House ; 
South  Carolina's  number  fell  from  nine  to  seven. 
North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  and  Georgia 
barely  held  their  own.  The  older  South  was  dis 
tinctly  losing  in  the  national  race,  despite  the  three- 
fifths  rule  on  slavery.  The  Southwest  gained  some 
members,  but  the  Northwest  was  growing  faster.  It 
was  time  for  the  South  to  act  if  she  was  to  main 
tain  her  position  in  the  country.  In  making  up  his 
Cabinet  in  the  autumn  of  1841,  and  again  in  filling 
the  vacancies  that  occurred  from  time  to  time,  the 
President  selected  men  who  favored  expansion  in 
the  Southwest.  The  leaders  of  the  Administration 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  were  ex-Governor 
Gilmer  and  Henry  A.  Wise,  of  Virginia,  and  the 
spokesmen  of  the  South  generally  joined  these  in 
demanding  the  immediate  annexation  of  Texas  as  a 
Southern  measure.  Calhoun,  though  not  speaking  so 
often,  was  the  real  leader  of  this  cause  in  the  Senate, 
and  he  constantly  urged  upon  his  friends  the  necessity 
of  this  acquisition  as  a  distinct  aid  to  his  section. 


EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Nearly  all  the  West  favored  this  Southern  propo 
sition  ;  but  an  equally  important  matter  to  them 
was  the  occupation  of  Oregon.  In  Ohio,  Michigan, 
and  northern  Illinois  there  was  some  indifference  as 
to  Texas,  but  none  on  the  subject  of  Oregon.  The 
vast  region  stretching  from  the  forty-second  parallel 
of  north  latitude  to  Alaska,  and  embracing  an  em 
pire  in  itself,  was  held  jointly  with  England,  whose 
fur  traders  had  actually  occupied  the  country  on 
the  northern  side  of  the  Columbia  River.  England 
desired  to  hold  the  promising  region.  Under  the 
agreement  of  1818,  renewed  in  1828,  either  coun 
try  was  to  give  one  year's  notice  of  a  purpose  to 
abandon  joint  control,  and,  should  the  relation  with 
England  be  dissolved,  the  stronger  party  would 
doubtless  obtain  the  better  part  of  the  territory. 
The  people  of  the  Northwest  under  radical  leader 
ship  soon  learned  to  demand  all  Oregon;  English 
fur  interests  understood  the  situation  well,  and  they 
pressed  their  Government  to  seize  all  the  territory 
along  the  Pacific  to  the  Bay  of  California.  And 
English  relations  with  Mexico  were  such  that  Lower 
California  was  apt  to  be  added  to  Oregon  in  case  of 
a  break  with  the  United  States. 

In  the  East  there  had  been  reason  for  increasing 
irritation  between  the  two  Governments.  British 
public  opinion  had  been  distinctly  unfriendly  since 
the  Canadian  insurrection  of  1837—38,  when  so 
many  Americans  gave  assistance  to  the  insurgents. 
And  this  unfriendliness  was  fed  by  the  ill-concealed 
desire  of  the  people  of  the  West  for  the  annexation 
of  Canada  to  the  United  States.  When  the  Amer- 


THE  MILITANT  SOUTH  123 

lean  ship  Caroline,  which  had  been  assisting  the 
Canadian  insurrectionists,  was  seized  and  destroyed 
by  the  English  on  Lake  Erie,  an  American  citizen 
was  killed.  This  was  amicably  arranged;  but  in 
1840  a  certain  Alexander  McLeod,  then  in  New 
York,  avowed  that  he  had  killed  the  American  and 
was  promptly  seized  by  the  state  authorities  and 
put  on  trial  for  his  life.  McLeod  now  claimed  that 
he  had  done  the  deed  in  obedience  to  orders,  and 
the  British  Minister  came  to  his  assistance.  Offi 
cers  of  the  American  State  Department  took  the 
same  view,  but  they  were  helpless,  and  for  a  time 
it  seemed  that  one  of  the  States  would  put  to 
death  as  a  murderer  a  man  whom  both  England 
and  the  United  States  recognized  to  be  innocent. 
War  seemed  imminent,  but  as  so  often  happens 
in  Anglo-Saxon  procedure,  a  way  out  of  the  legal 
impasse  was  found  in  a  fictitious  alibi^  and  McLeod 
was  acquitted. 

When  Sir  Robert  Peel  became  the  head  of  the 
English  Government  in  1841  he  sent,  as  Minister  to 
Washington,  Lord  Ashburton,  one  of  the  Baring 
Brothers  who  had  had  such  large  business  relations 
with  many  of  the  States  and  with  the  old  National 
Bank.  Ashburton  and  Webster  were  personal  friends, 
and  they  were  likely  to  find  a  solution  to  other  impor 
tant  and  pressing  problems  engaging  the  attention  of 
both  countries.  One  of  these  disputes  had  to  do  with 
the  suppression  of  the  nefarious  African  slave  trade, 
which  still  flourished  in  spite  of  the  most  stringent  of 
laws,  national  and  international.  The  difficulty  lay 
in  the  enforcement  of  law.  The  South  did  not  re- 


124         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

gard  slavery  as  an  unmixed  evil,  and  hence  Southern 
Presidents  had  not  been  overzealous  of  invoking  the 
severe  law  against  the  slave  trade.  England  stood 
ready  to  enforce  her  laws,  but  then  the  traders 
would  raise  the  American  flag.  This  necessitated 
the  exercise  of  the  obsolete  right  of  search  of  sus 
pected  vessels,  if  anything  was  to  be  done.  But  the 
people  of  the  United  States  resented  the  exercise  of 
the  right,  and  Northern  statesmen  were  also  loath 
to  allow  this.  To  obviate  all  difficulty  the  two 
Governments  agreed  in  1842  to  maintain  a  joint 
naval  patrol  of  the  African  coast.  The  South  was 
not  quite  pleased,  and  a  great  many  people  of  the 
West  were  displeased  that  Webster  had  yielded  the 
right  of  search  in  disguise,  as  it  was  thought. 

At  the  same  time  a  matter  of  larger  importance  to 
the  North,  the  settlement  of  the  long-disputed  bound 
ary  between  Maine  and  Nova  Scotia,  was  pending. 
Since  1838  there  had  been  quarrels  and  actual  en 
counters  along  the  northeastern  boundary,  which 
had  won  the  name  of  "  the  Aroostook  War."  Both 
Maine  and  the  National  Congress  had  appropriated 
money  to  maintain  American  rights  on  the  border, 
and  here  again  there  was  reason  to  fear  war.  Web 
ster  and  Ashburton  took  up  the  problem  and  by  mu 
tual  concessions  came  to  a  fair  but  very  unpopular 
agreement.  They  also  settled  outstanding  disputes 
concerning  the  long  boundary  between  the  Great 
Lakes  and  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

But  the  question  of  dividing  Oregon  was  left  un 
touched  even  by  these  friendly  diplomats.  Nor  could 
they  do  more  than  discuss  the  critical  Creole  trouble, 


THE  MILITANT  SOUTH  125 

which  just  now  came  to  complicate  the  relations  of 
both  peoples,  evidently  desirous  of  avoiding  war. 
The  Creole  was  a  vessel  engaged  in  the  domestic 
slave  trade.  In  1841  this  ship,  bound  for  New  Or 
leans,  was  seized  by  the  slaves  on  board,  who  killed 
its  crew  and  carried  it  into  the  port  of  Nassau.  The 
local  courts  punished  some  of  the  negroes  as  murder 
ers  and  set  the  others  free.  Speaking  for  the  Ameri 
can  Government,  Webster  demanded  of  England  an 
apology  and  compensation  for  the  slaves.  Ashburton 
defended  his  country  stoutly  and  refused  satisfac 
tion.  Again  public  opinion,  at  least  Southern  opin 
ion,  was  greatly  excited,  but  nothing  was  done  about 
the  Creole  case  until  1853,  when  it  was  submitted 
to  arbitration,  and  compensation  was  allowed  the 
owners  of  the  slaves. 

Thus  the  Webster- Ashburton  Treaty  of  1842  was 
a  settlement  of  some  threatening  difficulties  and  a 
tacit  compromise  or  ignoring  of  others.  It  served 
the  useful  purpose  of  keeping  the  peace  between 
kindred  peoples.  The  Oregon  and  Texas  questions 
were  left  open,  and  these  were  assuming  more 
dangerous  forms  with  the  passage  of  time. 

This  served  to  direct  attention  to  the  Pacific  Coast 
and  even  the  Far  East,  where  New  England  mer 
chants  and  shipowners  had  long  driven  a  profitable 
trade.  President  Tyler  sent  Commodore  Jones  to 
the  Pacific  to  protect  American  interests ;  he  pro 
posed  to  send  a  commissioner  to  China  in  the  hope 
of  aiding  American  commerce  there,  and  he  began 
to  consult  members  of  Congress  about  the  possibility 
of  obtaining  Texas,  California,  and  Oregon  all  in 


126         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

treaties  with  Mexico  and  England.  He  offered  to 
send  Webster  to  London  to  conduct  the  negotia 
tions,  and  at  his  instance  John  Quincy  Adams  wrote 
Edward  Everett,  the  American  Minister  to  England, 
that  he  might  resign  and  go  to  China  to  do  pioneer 
work  for  New  England  interests.  The  Webster- 
Ashburton  Treaty  was  to  be  followed  by  a  greater 
one,  securing  to  the  United  States  the  coveted  ex 
pansion  southwest,  west,  and  northwest.  Thus  Cal- 
hoim  and  his  extreme  Southerners,  Ben  ton  and  his 
ardent  imperialist  followers,  and  the  radical  North 
west  were  all  to  be  satisfied  at  a  single  stroke  of 
state,  and  Webster,  the  New  Englander,  was  to  be 
the  happy  instrument  and  perhaps  become  President 
in  consequence. 

Everett  refused  to  resign,  and  Webster  had  prom 
ised  his  Whig  friends  to  leave  the  State  Department. 
Tyler  did  not  despair ;  when  the  great  New  Eng 
lander  retired  in  1842,  like  Clay,  to  private  life,  he 
invited  Hugh  S.  Legare,  of  Charleston,  to  the  va 
cant  place.  A  year  later  Abel  P.  Upshur  succeeded 
to  the  office.  All  the  while  the  President  was  seeking 
to  guide  the  Administration  into  other  channels 
than  the  old  ones  of  tariff,  bank,  and  internal  im 
provements. 

The  Texan  envoys  to  Washington  repeatedly 
urged  unofficially  the  annexation  of  their  country, 
which  had  fallen  into  a  state  of  semi-bankruptcy, 
and  whose  governor,  Sam  Houston,  was  making 
overtures  for  English  protection  as  an  alternative  to 
failure  to  get  a  favorable  hearing  in  Washington. 
Southern  States  petitioned  for  annexation,  while 


THE  MILITANT  SOUTH  127 

Middle  Westerners  met  in  a  convention  at  Cincin 
nati  in  August,  1843,  and  demanded  the  immediate 
seizure  of  Texas  and  prompt  occupation  of  Oregon. 
Thousands  of  emigrants  left  Missouri  during  the 
summer  of  1843  for  the  Columbia  Valley,  under  the 
encouragement  of  Senator  Benton  and  for  the  pur 
pose  of  holding  the  country  against  English  fur  trad 
ers  or  more  permanent  settlers.  Under  all  this  pres 
sure  the  Administration  let  it  be  known  in  Congress 
that  at  least  Texas  would  be  annexed.  Upshur  re 
opened  negotiations  with  the  Texan  envoy  in  Wash 
ington.  Immediately  John  Quincy  Adams  protested, 
declaring  the  "  Confederacy "  to  be  dissolved  in 
case  Tyler's  "  nefarious "  scheme  should  be  con 
summated;  but  the  President  continued  to  press 
the  Texan  negotiations. 

When  the  treaty  with  the  new  republic  was  about 
concluded,  Upshur  was  accidentally  killed  by  the 
explosion  of  a  gun  on  the  ship  Princeton.  Calhoun, 
whose  ardent  candidacy  for  the  Democratic  nomina 
tion  had  failed,  was  called  to  the  State  Department 
to  take  up  the  unfinished  work.  Meanwhile  the 
campaigns  of  the  two  great  parties  were  already  far 
advanced.  Clay  was  the  acknowledged  candidate  of 
the  Whigs,  and  Van  Buren  had  obtained  the  pledged 
support  of  two  thirds  of  the  delegations  to  the  next 
Democratic  Convention,  which  was  to  meet  in  Bal 
timore  in  May,  1844.  Instinctively  dreading  new 
issues,  Van  Buren  arranged  a  visit  to  Jackson  in 
the  early  spring,  and  on  his  return  he  called  on 
Clay  at  Lexington,  Kentucky,  where  it  seems  to 
have  been  agreed  that  the  two  candidates  should 


128         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

eventually  eliminate  the  Texas  proposition  from  the 
platforms  of  the  two  great  parties.  On  April  20, 
when  Clay  was  in  Raleigh,  North  Carolina,  and  Van 
Buren  was  at  his  home  at  Linden  wald,  New  York, 
public  letters  were  given  out  by  both  leaders.  Both 
advised  against  discussing  the  one  thing  everybody 
was  discussing.  The  simultaneous  appearance  of  these 
formal  statements,  each  advising  the  same  thing, 
caused  a  national  sensation.  Men  thought  that  the 
two  candidates  had  agreed  beforehand  what  the  peo 
ple  should  not  do.  In  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  and 
Mississippi,  where  Texas  feeling  ran  high,  Demo 
cratic  opinion  could  not  be  restrained,  and  meetings 
were  called  to  reconsider  the  instructions  of  their 
delegations  to  the  Baltimore  Convention  ;  nor  were 
the  Southern  Whigs  less  anxious  about  the  outcome, 
though  the  party  as  a  whole  acquiesced  in  Clay's 
wish  that  Texas  should  be  eliminated  from  their 
forthcoming  platform. 

At  this  point  Robert  J.  Walker,  Senator  from 
Mississippi,  a  shrewd  little  man  who  had  gone  to 
the  Southwest  eighteen  years  before  to  make  his  for 
tune,  assumed  the  management  of  the  Democratic 
party.  A  bold  land  speculator  and  an  able  lawyer, 
connected  with  the  powerful  Dallas  and  Bache  fami 
lies  in  Pennsylvania,  he  quickly  rose  to  a  command 
ing  position  in  his  State  and  was  sent  to  the  United 
States  Senate,  where  he  soon  made  himself  felt  as 
the  most  radical  representative  of  Southern  and 
Western  interests,  urging  the  rapid  removal  of  the 
Indians  beyond  the  western  frontiers,  free  home 
steads  for  all  who  would  go  West,  and  the  immedi- 


THE  MILITANT  SOUTH  129 

ate  annexation  of  Texas.  An  intimate  friend  of 
Van  Buren,  a  persistent  opponent  of  Calhoun,  and 
a  rival  of  Ben  ton  for  national  honors,  Walker  pub 
lished  on  Jackson  Day,  January  8,  1844,  a  letter  to 
the  public  which  was  immediately  reprinted  in  the 
newspapers  of  the  South  and  West,  and  which  in 
pamphlet  form  had  a  very  wide  circulation.  In  this 
letter  he  came  out  boldly  for  the  "  reannexation  of 
Texas  and  the  reoccupation  of  Oregon,"  —  all  Ore 
gon.  His  rhetorical  language  and  his  defiance  of 
England  gained  the  public  ear  on  both  Texas  and 
Oregon,  while  his  shrewd  suggestions  of  commercial 
expansion  in  the  Pacific  won  powerful  support  in 
New  York  and  Boston.  But  the  greatest  stroke  of 
this  publication  was  the  apparent  Southern  demand 
for  all  Oregon,  and  before  the  Van  Buren-Clay 
"  self-denying  ordinances "  appeared,  Walker  was 
forging  the  union  of  South  and  West  on  the  propo 
sition,  reannexation  of  Texas  and  reoccupation  of 
Oregon,  and  maneuvering  in  Washington  for  what 
was  later  called  the  "  bargain  of  the  Baltimore  Con 
vention."  Walker's  relations  with  the  Pennsylvania 
leaders  gave  him  a  strong  position  in  that  great 
Democratic  community,  and  he  soon  secured  the  sup 
port  of  Thomas  Ritchie,  the  master  politician  in  Vir 
ginia.  When  the  Democrats  met,  late  in  May,  the 
"  little  Senator  "  was  in  perfect  control.  He  renewed 
and  vitalized  the  rule  of  the  Democratic  party 
whereby  the  candidate  must  secure  two  thirds  of  all 
votes  cast  in  order  to  receive  the  nomination.  He 
procured  the  passage  of  this  resolution  by  a  mere 
majority  vote,  and  thus  Van  Buren,  who  had  a  ma- 


130        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

jority  of  the  delegates  instructed  to  vote  for  him, 
was  deprived  of  the  leadership  of  the  party.  The 
Walker  slogan,  "All  of  Texas,  all  of  Oregon,"  was 
adopted  by  the  convention,  and  James  K.  Polk,  for 
merly  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  was 
nominated  for  the  Presidency.  Walker's  brother-in- 
law,  George  M.  Dallas,  a  Pennsylvania  protectionist, 
was  nominated  for  the  Vice-Presidency.  It  was  but  a 
few  days  before  the  Northwestern  men  indicated  the 
trend  of  events  by  giving  every  assurance  of  their 
support  and  adding  to  the  campaign  cry  of  Wal 
ker  the  "  fif ty-f our-forty-or-fight "  slogan  which  was 
heard  on  every  stump  from  June  till  November. 

Van  Buren  was  humiliated  and  eliminated  from 
the  counsels  of  the  party ;  Clay  laughed  at  his 
"dark-horse"  competitor,  of  whom  he  affected  never 
to  have  heard ;  Calhoun,  the  legitimate  beneficiary 
of  the  Texas  propaganda,  joined  Walker  with  heart 
and  soul  and  aided  greatly  in  the  management  of  the 
campaign.  A  new  Democratic  regime  —  the  South 
and  West  cooperating  —  had  been  founded.  This 
second  coalition  aimed  at  Clay  and  the  East  resem 
bled  very  strikingly  that  of  1828.  And  new  issues 
had  been  injected  into  the  national  discussion.  A 
rapid  extension  of  the  national  domain  to  the  Rio 
Grande,  to  the  Pacific,  and  to  54°  40'  of  north  lati 
tude  in  the  Far  Northwest  was  opposed  to  Clay's 
well-worn  program  of  a  protective  tariff,  national 
bank,  and  internal  improvements. 

Meanwhile  Calhoun  and  Tyler  completed  their 
treaty  with  Texas  and  submitted  it  to  the  Senate, 
where  it  was  heLl  in  suspense  until  after  the  meet- 


THE  MILITANT  SOUTH  131 

ing  of  the  conventions.  Tyler,  after  some  hesitation, 
gave  his  support  to  Polk  and  Dallas.  Calhoun  sup 
pressed  uprisings  against  the  new  leadership  in  South 
Carolina,  where  strong  doubt  prevailed  as  to  the 
purposes  of  Walker  and  Dallas  with  reference  to  the 
tariff.  The  old  statesman,  isolated  though  he  was, 
thought  that  if  the  South  and  West  could  be  held 
together  the  future  would  be  secure.  He  took  pleas 
ure  in  the  belief  that  "  this  is  the  end  of  Clay,"  who 
had  so  long  troubled  the  national  waters,  while  the 
politicians  of  the  new  coalition  assured  him  that  he 
would  succeed  Polk  in  1848.  Webster  said  little 
during  the  campaign ;  New  England  was  divided  by 
the  promises  of  a  great  commercial  expansion  and 
the  annexation  of  Oregon.  The  election  of  Polk  and 
Dallas  justified  the  bold  moves  of  the  Baltimore  Con 
vention.  The  scheme  of  Tyler,  looking  to  the  annexa 
tion  of  Texas,  California,  and  Oregon,  was  now  to  be 
put  into  effect,  even  at  the  risk  of  war  with  Eng 
land,  whence  serious  warnings  had  been  coming 
since  the  new  national  purpose  became  clear. 

After  years  of  uncertainty  and  deadlock,  the  coun 
try  was  now  prepared  for  a  forward  movement,  and 
though  Polk  was  not  her  ideal  statesman,  the  people 
rallied  with  fair  unanimity  to  his  standard.  The! 
new  Administration  would  represent  the  new  Demo 
cratic  party  —  a  resolute  South  and  an  ardent  West. 
And  the  President-elect,  simple  and  direct  in  all  his 
ways,  was  determined  to  carry  out  the  purposes  of  his 
supporters,  namely,  set  the  country  upon  a  career  of 
expansion  hitherto  unparalleled  in  its  history. 

In  Illinois,  Missouri,  and  throughout  the  South 


132         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

the  demand  was  well-nigh  unanimous  that  the  disputed 
region  along  the  Kio  Grande  should  be  held  as  against 
Mexico,  and  that  California  and  Oregon  should 
be  seized  and  colonized.  Cass,  the  older,  and  Doug 
las,  the  younger  leader  of  the  Northwest,  were  agreed 
in  these  extreme  demands ;  even  Benton,  the  disap 
pointed  friend  of  Van  Buren,  found  compensation  in 
the  proposed  Pacific  frontier,  while  a  powerful  group 
of  Southerners  led  by  Governor  Gilmer,  of  Virginia, 
Eobert  Barnwell  Rhett,  of  South  Carolina,  Wil 
liam  L.  Yancey,  of  Alabama,  and  Jefferson  Davis, 
of  Mississippi,  took  up  the  program  of  Calhoun  and 
pressed  it  almost  daily  upon  Congress  and  the  coun 
try.  The  South  was  about  to  resume  control  of  the 
national  fortunes. 

In  that  region,  where  cotton  was  king,  and  to 
bacco,  sugar,  and  rice  were  powerful  allies,  a  unique 
civilization  had  grown  up.  The  plantation  was  the 
model,  and  the  patriarchal  master  of  slaves  the  ideal 
character  which  the  ambitious  poor  imitated  every 
where.  The  elegant  life  of  the  colonial  plantation 
houses,  which  adorned  the  banks  of  the  winding  riv 
ers  of  the  old  South  in  the  days  of  the  Revolution, 
had  gradually  moved  westward  and  southwestward 
until  the  larger  tobacco  area  of  the  Piedmont  region 
extended  from  Petersburg,  Virginia,  to  Greensboro, 
North  Carolina,  and  from  the  falls  of  the  rivers  to 
the  slopes  of  the  Blue  Ridge.  Instead  of  running 
away  from  their  slaves,  as  John  Randolph  had  feared 
Southern  gentlemen  would  be  compelled  to  do,  the 
tobacco  planters  found  their  business  increasingly 
prosperous  as  the  great  cotton  area  south  of  them 


THE   MILITANT   SOUTH  135 

opened  larger  markets  for  their  crops  and  higher 
prices  for  their  surplus  negroes.  Even  the  wheat- 
growers  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  became  again 
prosperous  when  the  great  canals  and  the  improved 
turnpikes  reached  the  valley  of  Virginia  and  opened 
still  wider  areas  of  rich  lands  to  the  Richmond  and 
Baltimore  markets.  The  plantation  form  of  life  pen 
etrated  the  high  lands  of  Virginia  almost  to  the  Ten 
nessee  border,  and  slavery  was  fastening  its  hold 
upon  the  up-country  people  who  had  formerly  been 
hostile. 

But  the  vast  cotton  region,  embracing  the  better 
part  of  middle  and  eastern  North  Carolina  and  the 
accessible  lands  of  the  lower  South  to  Eastern  Texas, 
and  extending  over  most  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  to 
St.  Louis,  was  the  heart  of  the  South,  which  sup 
ported  the  Polk  Administration  and  waged  the  war 
upon  Mexico  soon  to  begin.  In  this  fine  country, 
men  of  ability  made  fortunes  in  a  few  years  and 
learned  to  imitate  the  life  of  the  old  southern  manor 
houses.  Forests  were  cleared  away  in  winter  by  the 
sturdy  hands  of  slaves,  and  new  fields  were  opened 
to  cotton  culture  each  spring  to  supply  the  places  of 
those  that  had  been  rapidly  worn  down  by  unscien 
tific  methods  of  agriculture.  The  cabins  which  made 
the  homes  of  well-to-do  men  iu  the  Jeffersonian  epoch 
gave  way  to  substantial  frame  houses  with  massive 
columns  and  wide  verandas,  with  great  hallways  and 
broad  banquet-rooms,  which  so  much  delighted  the 
heart  of  the  planter  of  Calhoun's  day.  In  a  warm 
climate  like  that  of  the  cotton  region  the  object  of 
the  builder  was  always  to  attain  cool  recesses  and 


136        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

retired  gardens,  where  the  social  life  of  the  time  dis 
played  itself. 

The  houses  were  built  on  hilltops  covered  with 
primeval  oaks,  which  cast  a  dense  shade  over  all. 
Sometimes  stone  or  brick  walls  protected  the  prem 
ises  against  the  outer  world,  and  wide  entrances, 
guarded  on  either  side  by  sculptured  lions  or  tigers, 
gave  a  dignity  and  a  splendor  which  reminded  one 
of  the  estates  of  English  noblemen.  In  the  rear  of 
these  pretentious  and  sometimes  beautiful  houses 
were  the  rows  of  negro  cabins,  with  their  little  gar 
dens  for  the  raising  of  vegetables  and  the  ranges  for 
chickens,  as  dear  to  the  palates  of  negro  slaves  as 
to  those  of  visiting  clergymen.  The  barns  and  car 
riage  houses  completed  the  outfit.  Where  hundreds 
of  bales  of  cotton  and  thousands  of  barrels  of  corn 
were  grown  annually,  there  would  be  driving  or  sad 
dle  horses  for  the  master's  family  and  many  Ken 
tucky  mules  for  the  work  of  the  fields ;  and  a  planta 
tion  took  on  the  appearance  of  a  busy  colony  in  a 
new  country.  Sixty  to  a  hundred  negroes  were  re 
garded  as  the  best  labor  unit  for  profitable  agricul 
ture.  Of  these  there  would  be  a  few  house  servants 
trained  in  all  the  intricacies  of  patriarchal  hospital 
ity  and  courtesy.  The  carriage  driver  and  keeper  of 
the  stables,  sometimes  clad  in  the  extra  dignity  of  a 
special  livery  and  a  tall  silk  hat,  a  tyrant  to  all  the 
little  negroes,  but  an  obsequious  flatterer  to  those 
who  were  welcome  at  the  master's  house,  was  per 
haps  the  most  envied  man  of  the  estate.  To  see  this 
matchless  son  of  Africa  mounted  on  the  high  seat  of 
an  old-fashioned  English  carriage,  as  he  dro  ^e  his 


THE  MILITANT  SOUTH  137 

prancing  horses  to  the  front  door  of  the  "great 
house "  and  asked  if  all  were  ready  for  church, 
was  to  get  a  glimpse  of  the  old  South  itself.  The 
boasted  freedom  of  "poor  white  trash"  or  of  "im 
pudent  free  issue  negroes  "  had  no  attractions  to  him 
who  enjoyed  these  high  prerogatives. 

The  master  who  was  responsible  for  the  multitu 
dinous  life  of  the  plantation,  arbiter  of  the  fortunes, 
sometimes,  of  a  thousand  men,  was  usually  conscious 
of  his  power  and,  when  "  times  were  good,"  kind  to 
his  dependents.  He  liked  to  see  his  negroes  fat  and 
happy,  for  a  "likely  slave  "  was  as  good  as  money  in 
the  bank.  Accustomed  to  the  exercise  of  authority, 
he  was  apt  to  be  a  member  of  the  county  court,  the 
actual  governing  agency  of  the  old  South,  and  as  such 
he  was  always  "  squire."  From  the  county  court  he 
went  to  the  state  legislature,  where  he  and  his  fellow 
planters  made  the  laws  of  these  sovereign  States  of 
the  old  regime.  From  local  magistrate  to  chief  ex 
ecutive  the  Southern  community  was  governed  by  the 
owners  of  slaves,  and  the  great  men  whom  they  chose 
to  speak  for  the  South  in  Congress  or  to  advise  the 
President  and  his  Cabinet  or  to  sit  upon  the  benches 
of  the  federal  courts  were  invariably  masters  of  plan 
tations,  trained  from  early  youth  to  the  exercise  of 
authority  and  accustomed  to  receive  the  homage  of 
their  neighbors.  It  was  a  mighty  social  and  economic 
organization  which  had  grown  up  in  and  spread  over 
the  richer  lands  of  South  and  West,  as  far  as  the  bor 
ders  of  Mexico  and  the  valleys  of  the  Ohio  and  Mis 
souri.  The  wheat  and  tobacco  growers,  the  rice  and 
sugar  planters  were  allied  to  the  more  powerful 


138         EXPANSION   AND   CONFLICT 

cotton  lords,  and,  though  there  were  party  differ 
ences,  all  spoke  the  same  voice  in  the  national  life. 
Of  the  five  or  six  millions  of  southern  white  people 
in  1845  only  seven  or  eight  thousand  were  great 
plantation  masters,  though  some  three  hundred 
thousand  were  either  owners  of  slaves  or  members 
of  the  privileged  families  —  a  larger  proportion 
than  usual  for  a  favored  class,  but  still  a  small 
number  when  compared  to  the  total  population  of 
the  country  which  was,  from  1845  to  1860,  con 
trolled  by  them. 

As  was  natural,  the  professional  classes  of  the 
South,  the  lawyers,  clergymen,  physicians,  and  teach 
ers,  were  in  close  alliance  with  the  planters,  their 
callings  and  their  incomes  being  directly  dependent 
on  them.  A  successful  professional  man  soon  became 
a  master  and  usually  retired  to  a  country  seat.  If  a 
poor  but  capable  young  man  gave  promise  of  power 
and  leadership  he  was  soon  accepted  by  his  dominant 
neighbors  and  became  a  son-in-law  of  a  privileged 
family ;  if  a  preacher  rose  to  fame  doubting  or  even 
condemning  the  institutions  of  the  South,  he  was  apt 
to  find  a  way  to  change  his  views  and  to  become 
a  part  of  the  system  before  he  reached  his  mature 
years.  The  articulate  South  was,  therefore,  in  eco 
nomic  and  social  life  a  unit  in  1845,  and  this  unit 
was  the  strongest  group  in  the  country  as  a  whole. 
Its  demand  for  expansion  towards  the  southwest 
was  based  upon  the  common  desire,  the  common  law 
of  growth,  and  this  growth  was  the  only  means  of 
winning  new  votes  in  Congress  and  in  the  electoral 
college.  It  was  the  same  motive  which  actuated  the 


140        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

farmers  of  the  Northwest  and  the  commercial  leaders 
of  New  England  when  they  demanded  of  the  Federal 
Government  the  seizure  of  Oregon  or  the  protection 
of  ships  upon  the  ocean. 

If  the  planter  and  dominant  element  of  the  South 
urged  Polk  and  Walker  onward  in  their  course  and 
gave  power  to  Calhoun,  the  greater  masses  of  non- 
slaveholding  Southerners  were  hardly  less  enthusi- 
jistic.  The  earlier  jealousy  and  fear  of  the  planters 
had  everywhere  weakened  as  the  new  lands  of  the 
South  and  West  gave  opportunity  to  the  more  am 
bitious  to  rise  in  the  social  and  economic  scale.  The 
sons  of  small  farmers  and  landless  men  in  the  old 
South  had  built  the  cotton  kingdom  of  the  lower 
South,  and  were  now  drawing  aristocratic  Virginia 
and  the  Carolinas  into  a  close  union  with  the  new 
region.  The  widening  of  the  area  of  slavery  was 
equivalent  to  the  opening  of  a  social  safety  valve  to 
the  older  and  stratifying  life  of  the  South.  Young 
men  who  had  been  hostile  to  slavery  at  home  became 
friendly  allies  in  a  new  environment.  Thus  the  small 
farmers  became  enthusiastic  supporters  of  the  great 
machine  of  which  slavery  was  the  base. 

Not  only  so,  the  growers  of  corn  and  wheat  in  the 
remote  hills  and  mountains  of  the  South,  the  men 
who  distilled  their  grain  into  strong  drink,  those 
who  raised  pigs  or  cotton  a  hundred  or  two  hun 
dred  miles  west  of  the  tobacco  and  cotton  belts, 
could  always  find  a  market  in  the  plantation  towns 
where  calicos,  "  store-clothes,"  and  trinkets  could  be 
had  for  themselves  and  families.  The  long  trains  of 
quaint,  covered  tobacco  wagons  which  wound  their 


THE   MILITANT  SOUTH  141 

way  over  rough  roads  from  the  mountains  to  the 
black  belt  carried  whiskey  or  other  up-country  prod 
ucts  to  the  plantations ;  the  droves  of  mules,  cattle, 
or  hogs  which  poured  into  the  Carolinas  and  the 
Gulf  region  from  East  Tennessee  and  Kentucky 
were  bonds  of  attraction  between  the  planters  and  the 
non-slaveholding  elements  too  powerful  to  be  ignored. 
And  as  time  passed  the  legislatures  under  planter 
control  built  better  highways  and  projected  railways 
into  the  richer  sections  of  the  interior,  which  invari 
ably  made  allies  of  these  new  economic  communities, 
and  gradually  slavery  followed  in  the  wake  of  the 
new  channels  of  communication. 

The  most  helpless  of  the  Southern  groups  were  the 
poorer  farmers,  who  lived  on  the  semi-sterile  lands 
which  the  planters  refused  to  occupy  or  in  the  pine 
barrens  of  the  eastern  Carolinas,  and  the  landless 
class  which  hung  on  to  the  skirts  of  slavery.  Unam 
bitious,  ignorant,  and  improvident,  frequently  the 
"ne'er-do-wells"  of  the  old  families,  ignored  by  the 
wealthy  and  spurned  by  the  slaves,  who  gave  them 
the  name  of  "  poor  white  trash,"  their  lot  was  hard, 
indeed.  They  earned  a  few  dollars  a  year  at  odd  jobs, 
raised  a  few  hogs  or  at  most  a  bale  or  two  of  cotton, 
and  lived  in  cabins  little  better  than  those  occupied 
by  the  negroes.  Their  children  were  numerous, 
without  educational  advantages,  and  accustomed  to 
the  poor  and  meager  cultural  life  of  an  outcast  class. 
Their  outlook  was  no  better  than  that  of  their  par 
ents.  Barefoot,  half -clad,  yet  alert  and  agile,  hating 
negroes  and  fearing  the  masters,  these  "  Anglo- 
Saxons  "  offered  the  problem  of  the  South.  Unac- 


142         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

custom ed  to  independent  voting,  they  did  not  en 
danger  the  existing  order,  and  even  when  they  were 
aroused  to  a  sense  of  their  position,  their  ignorance 
and  dependence  and  prejudices  prevented  them  from 
organizing  in  self-defense.  They  usually  followed 
their  economic  superiors,  and  learned  to  denounce 
the  tariff,  internal  improvements,  and  "  scheming 
Yankees  "  as  roundly  as  did  their  wealthy  neighbors. 
Still,  life  in  the  South  was  in  the  open ;  the  joys 
and  the  sports  of  the  people  were  those  of  healthy 
rural  communities.  The  well-to-do  and  even  the 
poorer  classes  lived  on  horseback,  bet  on  the  races, 
and  participated  in  the  rough-and-tumble  games  of 
the  court  days.  The  wealthy  did  not  refuse  all  re 
lations  with  "  the  people "  on  such  occasions.  The 
planter  knew  and  called  familiarly  by  name  every 
man  in  his  part  of  the  county,  and  the  magistrates 
who  made  up  the  courts  of  the  people  exercised  a 
kindly  patriarchal  authority  over  their  "  inferiors," 
the  dependent  whites.  There  were  few  occupants  of 
jails  or  penitentiaries  ;  poorhouses  were  often  tenant- 
less,  and  asylums  for  the  insane  were  not  numerous 
or  crowded.  Beggars  and  tramps  were  unknown. 
/Judged  by  the  facts  of  life  the  system  of  slavery  and 
*  large  proprietors  was  not  so  bad  as  it  appeared  ;  and 
as  the  South  came  into  full  self-consciousness,  say 
with  the  inauguration  of  Polk  and  Dallas,  the  prob 
lems  of  adjustment  of  the  different  economic  groups, 
of  providing  better  educational  facilities  for  the 
poorer  classes,  and  of  meeting  certain  religious  and 
social  requirements  of  the  slaves  themselves,  were 
fully  recognized  by  the  masters,  and  beginnings  of 


THE   MILITANT   SOUTH  143 

improvement  in  all  these  matters  were  already 
making. 

In  nothing  was  this  more  evident  than  in  Southern 
religious  life.  The  South  which  followed  Jefferson 
was  largely  indifferent  to  religious  dogmas  of  all 
kinds.  Most  of  the  greater  leaders  had  been  deists 
rather  than  Christians ;  nor  had  they  suffered  for 
these  opinions  at  the  hands  of  the  people.  Calhoun's 
Unitarian  is  in  had  in  no  way  retarded  his  political 
career.  But  before  1830  a  change  was  taking  place. 
The  stout  Presbyterianism  of  the  up-country  forced 
the  retirement  of  one  of  the  professors  of  the  Uni 
versity  of  Virginia,  in  its  earlier  years,  and  it  com 
pelled  the  resignation  of  President  Cooper  of  the 
University  of  South  Carolina,  in  1836,  because  of 
his  denial  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Pentateuch.  The 
Presbyterians  had  grown  powerful  and  wealthy ;  they 
asserted  their  influence  in  Virginia  and  South  Caro 
lina,  and  they  were  already  recognized  as  leaders 
in  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  and  Kentucky.  What 
this  denomination  did  was  applauded  by  the  more 
numerous  Baptists  and  Methodists,  whose  member 
ship  was  as  yet  too  poor  to  command  the  influence 
of  their  rivals. 

Before  1844,  however,  these  great  religious  organi 
zations  in  the  South,  with  a  combined  membership 
of  nearly  a  million,  received  full  recognition.  With 
a  small-farmer  and  landless  membership  they  had 
opposed  slavery  and  the  whole  aristocratic  system  be 
fore  1820,  but  as  the  years  passed,  tobacco  and  cot 
ton  culture  made  many  of  them  wealthy  and  opened 
the  way  to  all  who  were  ambitious  to  rise.  At  once 


144         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

the  official  attitude  began  to  change.  The  preachers 
ceased  first  to  denounce  "  the  institution,"  and  finally 
without  offense  became  slave-owners  themselves.  The 
clergy's  stern  rebukes  of  fashion,  of  dancing,  and  of 
"  the  wearing  of  fine  raiment "  ceased  or  lost  its 
effect.  Presbyterians  had  long  believed  in  an  edu 
cated  ministry,  and  when  they  forced  their  influence 
into  political  life,  they  were  already  friendly  to  the 
dominant  ideas  of  the  South.  Now  the  Baptists  and 
Methodists  built  colleges  for  the  training  of  young 
ministers,  and  preaching  in  their  simple  churches 
was  made  to  conform  to  the  canons  of  good  taste. 
Throughout  the  South  the  churches  became  the  allies 
of  the  existing  economic  and  social  order,  and  they 
presented  a  solid  front  to  those  who  proposed  to  dis 
cipline  men  for  holding  other  men  in  bondage.  Their 
clergy  formulated  a  strong  Biblical  and  patriarchal 
defense  of  the  South.  Slavery,  from  being  an  insti 
tution  to  be  lamented  as  an  evil,  became  a  blessing 
sustained  by  the  Holy  Scriptures,  according  to  the 
ablest  ministers  of  God. 

When  the  Northern  branches  of  these  churches 
found  how  completely  their  Southern  brethren  had 
yielded  to  the  powerful  social  pressure  of  their  local 
life,  a  vigorous  attempt  was  made  to  correct  the  tend 
ency.  It  failed,  and  in  1844-45  the  Baptists  of  the 
East  and  those  of  the  upper  Northwest  refused  to 
cooperate  with  Southern  churches  which  insisted  on 
the  right  to  send  out  missionaries  who  owned  slaves. 
A  Southern  Baptist  Church  was  the  immediate  re 
sult.  In  the  same  year,  1844,  the  Methodists  of  the 
East  and  upper  West  refused  to  recognize  the  min- 


THE   MILITANT   SOUTH  145 

istrations  of  a  bishop  who  owned  slaves,  and  a  break 
up  of  the  church  followed.  The  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  was  organized  at  Louisville  the  fol 
lowing  year.  The  Presbyterians  and  Episcopalians 
had  become  so  completely  reconciled  to  the  aristo 
cratic  life  which  slavery  connoted  that  they  sustained 
no  serious  breach  in  their  ranks.  In  the  North  as  well 
as  in  the  South  they  accepted  slavery.  A  notable  re 
sult  of  these  breaks  in  the  Baptist  and  Methodist 
churches  was  the  rapid  increase  of  membership  of 
both  in  the  South.  Within  a  period  of  ten  years  the 
Southern  Baptists  were  as  powerful  as  the  American 
Baptists  had  been  in  1844.  The  same  is  true  of  the 
Methodists,  and  what  happened  in  the  South  was 
paralleled  in  the  North.  Pro-slavery  churches  in  the 
South  and  anti-slavery  churches  in  the  North  seemed 
to  be  required  by  the  people.  Revivals,  educational 
improvements,  and  missionary  zeal  were  the  fruits 
of  the  "reformation."  Politicians  like  Calhoun,  who 
watched  and  counseled  these  peaceful  schisms,  urged 
that  the  Union  must  in  due  time  likewise  break  into 
pieces ;  but  the  great  economic  forces  of  the  country 
were  as  yet  too  strong;  common  markets,  interlock 
ing  transportation  systems,  and  the  extraordinary 
prosperity  which  followed  the  Polk  regime  defeated 
the  wishes  of  those  who  thought  that  two  confeder 
ations  within  the  area  of  the  United  States  would  be 
better  than  one. 

Thus,  when  Polk  took  up  the  forward  program 
which  had  been  outlined  at  Baltimore,  and  which  was 
to  antiquate  the  "  American  System "  over  which 
Clay  and  Jackson  and  their  respective  groups  had 


146         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

fought  so  bitterly  since  1824,  the  South  was  rapidly 
crystallizing  into  a  solid  section  with  definite  ideas 
and  purposes.  The  plantation  owners  were  in  full 
command;  the  older  and  small-farmer  element  was 
falling  into  line  behind  their  pro-slavery  leaders ;  the 
social  and  religious  life  had  become  orthodox  and 
stratified ;  and  the  clergy,  who  now  preached  accept- 
ably  to  great  masses  of  people,  were,  like  those  of  New 
England,  in  full  sympathy  with  the  dominant  eco 
nomic  interests  of  their  time.  The  immediate  future 
of  the  South  was  fairly  certain,  and  Southern  leaders 
assumed  a  militant  tone  indicative  of  the  wishes  of 
their  people. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

Justin  H.  Smith's  Annexation  of  Texas  (1911)  and  G.  P.  Garri 
son's  Westward  Extension  (1906),  in  American  Nation  series,  give  full 
and  trustworthy  accounts  of  the  Texas  movement;  while  Lyon  G. 
Tyler's  Times  of  the  Tylers  (1884);  C.  H.  Ambler's  Life  of  Thomas 
Ritchie  (1913);  J.  W.  DuBose's  Life  of  William  L.  Yancey  (1892); 
and  J.  P.  H.  Claiborne's  Life  and  Correspondence  of  John  A.  Quit- 
man  (1860),  supply  abundant  material  showing  the  temper  and 
purposes  of  the  different  parts  of  the  South  in  1840.  U.  B. 
Phillips's  The  Plantation  and  Frontier  (1909)  is  an  excellent 
source-book  for  the  period,  and  the  Adams  Memoir,  Clay  Corre 
spondence  (Colt on),  Calhoun  Correspondence  (Jameson),  and  Mrs. 
A.  M.  Coleman's  The  Life  of  John  J.  Crittenden  (1871)  are  most 
useful  for  these  years.  The  debates  of  Congress  for  the  period  of 
1833  to  1873  are  found  in  the  Congressional  Globe  and  Appendices. 
For  the  philosophy  of  slavery  and  the  Southern  social  system  of 
which  slavery  was  the  basis  read  The  Pro-Slavery  Argument  (1852), 
containing  Thomas  R.  Dew's  and  James  H.  Hammond's  writings 
on  the  subject. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

WAR   AND    CONQUEST 

THE  treaty  which  Upshur  and  Calhoun  negotiated 
with  the  Texan  envoys  in  the  spring  of  1844  was 
presented  to  the  Senate  in  April,  and  held  in  com 
mittee  until  after  the  two  party  conventions  had  met 
in  Baltimore.  The  Whigs  condemned  it,  as  has  been 
noted,  and  the  Democrats  accepted  it.  It  was  a  mere 
matter  of  form,  then,  for  the  Whig  Senate  to  reject 
the  treaty  which  had  become  in  a  great  measure  the 
platform  of  their  opponents.  When  Congress  reas 
sembled  in  December  the  result  of  the  election  had 
made  it  plain  that  Calhoun  and  Walker,  and  not 
Clay  and  Van  Buren,  represented  the  wishes  of  the 
people,  though  the  majority  of  the  popular  vote  was 
exceedingly  small. 

Tyler  seemed  anxious  to  hasten  the  work  of  annex 
ation,  and  he  recommended  the  accomplishment  of 
his  purpose  by  joint  resolution  of  the  two  houses 
of  Congress.  Benton,  who  disliked  Tyler  and  hated 
Calhoun,  and  who  had  opposed  the  adoption  of  the 
treaty  in  the  preceding  spring,  now  gave  his  influence 
to  the  Administration,  and  during  the  closing  hours 
of  the  session  the  House  and  the  Senate  passed  the 
joint  resolution  making  Texas  a  State  by  narrow 
majorities.  There  was  widespread  opposition  to  the\ 
annexation  of  new  territory,  especially  pro-Southern  J 
territory,  by  the  new  method.  Joint  resolutions  in  / 


148        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

State  legislatures  that  were  evenly  divided  were  not 
unknown;  but  for  Congress  to  evade  a  plain  rule  of 
the  Constitution  requiring  two  thirds  of  the  Senate 
by  a  mere  majority  of  both  houses  was  denounced  as 
the  rankest  usurpation.  Without  serious  concern 
as  to  public  opinion  in  the  East  or  great  deference  to 
the  President-elect,  Tyler  and  Calhoun  hastened  mes 
sengers  to  Texas  and  ordered  two  regiments  of  troops, 
under  the  command  of  Colonel  Zachary  Taylor,  to 
take  position  at  Corpus  Christ!  on  the  southern  bank 
of  the  Nueces  River,  and  sent  a  squadron  of  the 
navy,  under  Commodore  Conner,  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Rio  Grande.  This  disposition  of  the  military  and 
naval  forces  of  the  United  States  was  made  to  pro 
tect  Texas  against  a  possible  invasion  by  Mexico ; 
but  it  was  sharp  notice  that  the  disputed  region  be 
tween  the  Nueces  and  the  Rio  Grande  would  be  held 
for  Texas.  Tyler  retired  to  his  Virginia  plantation, 
leaving  to  Polk  the  more  difficult  task  of  securing 
all  Oregon. 

Polk  had  already  shown  his  self-reliance  in  re 
fusing  to  appoint  Calhoun  Secretary  of  State.  That 
eminent  statesman  was  thoroughly  familiar  with  the 
foreign  relations  of  the  Government,  and  he  enjoyed 
a  prestige  that  would  have  distinguished  any  admin 
istration  ;  besides,  he  was  certain  that  he  could  bring 
matters  to  a  peaceful  conclusion  with  both  Mexico 
and  England.  Nor  had  he  failed  in  his  loyalty  to  the 
new  President  during  the  recent  campaign.  Still 
Polk  gave  James  Buchanan,  of  Pennsylvania,  the  first 
place  in  the  Cabinet.  Robert  J.  Walker  asked  and 
received  the  second  place  —  the  Treasury.  William 


The  Presidential  Election  of 


Shaded  areas  indicate  counties  and 
groups  of  counties  which  returned 
democratic  majorities.  Both  South 
Carolina  and  Arkansas  are  counted 
as  "solid." 

Beginnings  of  a  "solid"  south  are 
noticeable 

Mr.  C.  C.  Patterson  of  the  University  of  CWrago 


WAR  AND  CONQUEST  149 

L.  Marcy,  of  New  York,  and  John  Y.  Mason,  of 
Virginia,  represented  in  the  Cabinet  those  large  Dem 
ocratic  constituencies,  while  George  Bancroft,  the 
historian,  spoke  for  New  England,  though  the  people 
of  that  section  would  never  have  named  him  for  the 
honor. 

To  the  surprise  of  old  political  heads  Polk  an 
nounced  blandly  in  his  inaugural  that  he  would  pro 
ceed  to  "  reoccupy  Oregon  "  ;  that  is,  he  would  exe 
cute  the  mandate  of  the  Baltimore  Convention  even 
at  the  cost  of  war  with  England  !  But  Calhoun  had 
practically  agreed  with  the  British  Minister  to  com 
promise  the  conflicting  claims  to  Oregon.  Buchanan, 
being  a  man  of  yielding  temper,  was  disposed  to  the 
same  easy  solution  of  the  most  dangerous  problem 
of  the  Administration.  The  President,  however,  re 
strained  his  Secretary,  and  in  the  annual  message  of 
December,  1845,  he  asked  Congress  to  give  him 
authority  to  dissolve  the  copartnership  of  England 
and  the  United  States  with  reference  to  Oregon. 
This  was  taken  in  both  countries  as  inviting  war. 

Calhoun  regarded  this  move  as  likely  to  be  fatal 
to  the  retention  of  Texas  and  certain  to  lose  for  the 
country  all  of  Oregon.  He  returned  to  the  Senate 
for  the  avowed  purpose  of  preventing  war.  Webster, 
in  the  Senate  again,  was  on  friendly  terms  with  the 
leaders  of  the  English  governing  party,  and  both  he 
and  they  were  striving  to  prevent  the  expansionists 
from  committing  an  overt  act  of  hostility.  Benton, 
the  foremost  of  expansionists  before  Tyler  became 
President,  was  also  ready  to  compromise  the  dispute. 
This  meant  that  Calhoun,  Webster,  and  Benton  would 


150         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

unite  their  influence  to  defeat  the  foreign  policy  of 
the  President  if  it  were  not  modified  to  suit  their 
views. 

But  the  new  leadership  embraced  a  group  of  able 
and  bold  men :  John  A.  Dix,of  New  York ;  Caleb  Gush 
ing,  a  Whig  recruit  from  Massachusetts;  James  M. 
Mason,  of  Virginia;  Robert  Barn  wall  Rhett,  William 
L.  Yancey,  and  Jefferson  Davis,  of  the  lower  South ;  and 
David  Atchison,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  Lewis  Cass,and 
William  Allen,  of  the  Northwest, — all  ardent  expan 
sionists  and  "  big  Americans  "  who  would  not  readily 
suffer  the  defeat  of  the  party  program.  During  the 
summer  and  autumn  of  1845  their  policy  had  been 
worked  out  in  detail  and  discussed  among  the  men 
who  were  to  be  responsible  for  its  execution.  In  do 
mestic  affairs  their  scheme  embraced  the  settlement 
of  the  long-disputed  financial  policy  in  a  new  Inde 
pendent  or  Sub-Treasury  Bill  which  Secretary  Wal 
ker  was  preparing.  The  Tariff  of  1842,  which  had 
offended  the  Democratic  South,  was  also  to  be  re 
formed,  and  Walker  had  written  the  new  schedules 
which  Congress  was  to  enact  in  due  time.  In  order 
to  secure  the  necessary  Western  support  for  these 
Southern  purposes,  the  old  internal  improvements 
program  was  revived  in  an  enlarged  rivers  and  har 
bors  bill.  This  was  a  big  plan  and  the  Democratic 
majorities  in  House  and  Senate  were  very  narrow. 
The  outlook  was  anything  but  encouraging,  with 
Webster,  Calhoun,  and  Benton  likely  to  be  in  opposi 
tion  on  every  point. 

But  Congress  passed  the  Sub-Treasury  Bill,  by 
which  most  of  the  financial  measures  of  the  prececl- 


WAR  AND  CONQUEST  151 

ing  administrations  since  1833,  resting  on  the  mere 
orders  of  President  or  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
were  legalized.  It  was  in  the  main  the  same  law 

O 

which  Van  Buren  had  labored  so  long  to  secure, 
but  which  the  Whigs  had  repealed  in  1841.  The 
money  of  the  Government  was  henceforth  to  be  kept 
in  certain  designated  sub-treasuries  in  leading  cities 
like  New  York,  Baltimore,  and  New  Orleans,  and 
drawn  upon  by  the  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury  when 
needed.  There  was  thus  to  be  no  national  bank ;  and 
the  state  banks  were  to  continue  issuing  their  paper, 
which  was  to  be  the  money  of  the  people.  Gold  and 
silver,  coined  by  the  government  mint  at  Philadelphia, 
were  seldom  demanded  in  ordinary  business  trans 
actions,  though  coin  or  bullion  still  remained  the 
redemption  money  of  the  banks  and  served  as  the 
basis  of  exchange  with  foreign  countries. 

The  South  had  preached  free  trade  since  1828.  Polk 
and  his  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  had  been  prominent 
exponents  of  the  idea,  despite  some  campaign  bar 
gaining  with  Pennsylvania.  In  England  Richard 
Cobden,  John  Bright,  and  Sir  Robert  Peel  were 
about  to  secure  the  repeal  of  the  age-old  protective 
system,  and  in  both  France  and  Germany  the  free- 
trade  agitation  was  daily  winning  recruits.  Polk  and 
his  advisers  set  themselves  the  task  of  securing  the 
passage  of  a  "  free-trade  tariff  "  for  the  United  States. 
Walker  submitted  an  able  report  in  December,  1845. 
A  very  high  rate  was  recommended  on  all  luxuries,  in 
cluding  wines  and  liquors ;  an  average  duty  of  twenty- 
five  per  cent  was  to  be  laid  on  the  great  bulk  of 
imports  which  would  compete  with  American  cotton, 


152        EXPANSION  AND   CONFLICT 

wool,  and  iron  manufactures;  and  a  long  list  of 
articles  of  every  day  consumption  on  which  no  duties 
should  be  imposed  was  submitted.  Though  the  Penn- 
sylvanians  denounced  the  proposed  tariff  bill  as  un- 
Democratic,  it  became  a  law  in  July,  1846,  proved 
to  be  successful,  and  remained  the  corner-stone  of 
the  Democratic  structure  till  1861. 

The  douceur,  in  the  form  of  a  bill  for  liberal  in 
ternal  improvements  for  the  Northwest,  whose  leaders 
all  voted  for  the  tariff  reductions,  passed  both  houses 
of  Congress  ;  but  the  members  from  the  lower  South, 
led  by  Robert  Barnwell  Rhett,  protested  to  the 
last.  Polk  accepted  their  view  and  vetoed  the  bill. 
Northwestern  men  cried  out  "treachery"  so  loudly 
that  summer,  in  a  great  mass  meeting  in  Chicago, 
that  the  President  feared  the  party  was  seriously  en 
dangered.  Still,  the  three  problems  over  which  Clay, 
Calhouii,  and  Webster  had  wrestled  since  1816  had 
been  solved.  The  United  States  was  henceforth  to 
manage  its  finances  independently;  the  free-trade 
element  had  won  the  ascendancy,  and  there  was 
not  to  be  another  high-tariff  campaign  until  after  the 
Civil  War  ;  and  internal  improvements  on  a  large 
national  scale  were  not  to  be  undertaken  until  the 
passage  of  the  Pacific  Railway  Bill  in  1862.  The 
only  cloud  above  the  political  horizon  was  the  anger 
of  the  Northwestern  Democrats. 

There  was  more  danger  in  carrying  forward  the 
program  which  was  intended  to  secure  to  the  United 
States  Oregon,  California,  and  New  Mexico.  But 
the  first  step  had  already  been  taken.  In  April, 
1846,  both  House  and  Senate,  in  spite  of  the  oppo- 


WAR  AND  CONQUEST  153 

sition  of  the  older  leaders,  authorized  the  President  to 
give  notice  to  England  that  joint  occupation  should 
cease  at  the  expiration  of  a  year.  The  English  people 
were  much  excited,  and  the  idea  prevailed  that  this 
was  only  a  move  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  to 
seize  Canada,  but  the  British  Government  renewed 
the  proposition  to  compromise  on  the  forty-ninth 
parallel,  Vancouver  Island  to  remain  in  British 
possession.  A  treaty  to  this  effect  was  accepted  by 
both  Governments  during  the  summer  of  1846. 
Polk  could  boast  that  the  Oregon  question  had  been 
settled.  Again  the  Northwestern  Democrats,  who  had 
been  promised  all  of  Oregon,  were  sorely  disappointed. 
One  of  their  most  popular  leaders  declared  in  the  Sen 
ate  :  "James  K.  Polk  has  spoken  words  of  false 
hood,  and  with  the  tongue  of  a  serpent."  Would  the 
Northwestern  wing  of  the  party  continue  loyal? 
This  may,  perhaps,  best  be  answered  when  we  come 
to  discuss  the  Wrilmot  Proviso. 

When  the  Oregon  question  was  at  its  acutest 
stage,  in  the  autumn  of  1845,  Polk  sent  John  Sli- 
dell,  an  adroit  politician  of  Louisiana,  to  Mexico,  to 
renew  the  friendly  relations  which  had  been  broken 
off  immediately  after  the  passage  of  the  joint  resolu 
tion  by  Congress.  Slidell  was  authorized  to  negotiate 
a  treaty  by  which  European  influence,  then  being 
exerted  in  Mexico  against  the  United  States,  was  to 
be  counteracted,  the  annexation  of  Texas  approved, 
and  all  of  the  claims  of  American  citizens  against 
Mexico  were  to  be  definitely  satisfied.  But  as  Mexico 
had  no  funds  in  her  treasury,  Slidell  was  to  assume 
for  the  United  States  all  these  obligations,  and  pay 


154         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

the  Mexicans  $5,000,000  in  return  for  the  cession 
of  New  Mexico,  a  part  of  which  was  claimed  by 
Texas.  Finally  Slidell  was  to  purchase  California,  if 
that  were  found  to  be  possible,  and  raise  the  cash 
payment  from  $5,000,000  to  $25,000,000.  Slidell's 
mission  was  supported  by  a  naval  demonstration  in 
Mexican  waters,  arid  the  meaning  of  his  presence  was 
made  very  plain  to  the  people  of  the  distressed  republic. 

The  new  Minister  was  rejected,  however,  and 
Taylor  was  ordered  to  move  his  troops  toward  the 
Rio  Grande.  Mexico  resented  this,  and  near  Mat- 
amoras  on  April  24,  1846,  came  the  first  pass  at 
arms.  Slidell  returned  to  Washington  about  the 
time  that  the  news  of  this  encounter  reached  the 
President.  On  May  11,  war  was  declared  and  Tay 
lor  was  ordered  to  cross  the  border  and  "  conquer  a 
peace."  In  August  Colonel  S.  W.  Kearny  seized 
New  Mexico  and  set  out  with  a  troop  of  three  hundred 
men  to  take  California.  But  Commodore  John  Drake 
Sloat  had  been  sent  to  the  Pacific  with  a  squadron 
of  the  navy  to  prevent  the  seizure  of  Monterey  by 
the  English.  And  to  make  certainty  more  certain, 
Consul  Thomas  O.  Larkin  at  Monterey  had  been  in 
structed,  about  the  time  of  Slidell's  appointment  to 
Mexico,  to  be  in  readiness  for  any  emergency.  Be 
fore  Kearny  could  cross  the  mountains,  Larkin  and 
Sloat  had  taken  possession  of  California,  almost  un- 
resisted. 

In  September,  1846,  General  Taylor  won  a  bril 
liant  victory  at  Monterey,  twenty  miles  south  of  the 
Rio  Grande,  and  his  forces  were  being  augmented 
every  day  for  the  march  overland  to  the  City  of 


WAR  AND  CONQUEST  155 

Mexico.  Whig  politicians  hailed  at  once  the  new 
general  as  their  candidate  for  the  Presidency  in 
1848.  Naturally  the  Administration  did  not  care  to 
aid  their  opponents  in  their  political  plans,  and  its 
leaders  cast  about  for  a  Democratic  general.  None  J 
was  to  be  found  ;  and  Thomas  H.  Benton,  willing  ' 
that  Jackson's  plan  for  his  elevation  to  the  Presi 
dency  should  be  fulfilled,  asked  Polk  to  make  him 
commander-in-chief  of  all  the  forces  operating  in 
Mexico.  Benton  had  never  had  any  military  expe 
rience,  and  Polk  was  relieved  to  find  that  such  an 
appointment  would  not  be  confirmed  by  the  Senate. 
General  WTinfield  Scott,  already  quarreling  with  the 
Secretary  of  War,  and  hence  out  of  favor  with  the 
Administration,  was  the  only  alternative.  Scott  was 
also  a  candidate  for  the  Whig  nomination  for  the 
Presidency.  After  much  hesitation  most  of  the  troops 
of  Taylor  were  placed  under  the  command  of  Scott 
and  reinforced  with  still  others,  and  all  set  sail  for 
Vera  Cruz,  then  as  now  the  great  port  of  Mexico. 
The  city  fell  on  March  29,  1847,  and  the  march  to 
the  City  of  Mexico  was  about  to  begin. 

Meanwhile,  Santa  Anna  had  been  made  com 
mander  of  all  the  Mexican  armies,  and  he,  learning 
of  Taylor's  weak  and  isolated  position  south  of  Mon 
terey,  hastened  with  twenty  thousand  soldiers  to  sur 
round  and  capture  him.  Taylor  moved  forward  and 
met  the  enemy  at  Buena  Vista,  after  receiving  some 
raw  recruits,  on  February  23,  1847,  and  completely 
routed  him,  thus  adding  to  the  laurels  he  had  already 
won  and  convincing  the  country  that  he  had  been 
badly  treated  by  the  authorities  in  Washington. 


156         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Scott  began  the  march  to  the  Mexican  capital  on 
April  8.  He  met  resolute  resistance  at  Cerro  Gordo, 
where  on  April  17  and  18  a  large  army  of  the  enemy 
was  attacked  and  defeated.  At  this  point  Nicholas 
Trist,  envoy  from  the  President,  with  instructions 
to  treat  with  Mexico  on  the  basis  of  Slidell's  pro 
posals  of  1845,  arrived.  Trist  was  a  clerk  in  the 
Department  of  State,  and  Scott  refused  to  recognize 
or  have  any  relations  with  him.  After  much  unseemly 
bickering  and  the  conciliatory  services  of  the  British 
Minister  to  Mexico,  the  general  and  the  envoy  made 
peace,  and  negotiations  were  opened,  only  to  be 
broken  off  by  Santa  Anna  upon  his  arrival  from  the 
north.  On  August  19  and  20,  the  battle  of  Cheru- 
busco  seemed  to  convince  the  Mexicans  that  further 
resistance  would  be  futile,  and  Trist  again  offered 
peace  on  the  terms  of  1845,  except  that  the  United 
States  would  reduce  the  amount  of  money  to  be  paid 
by  $5,000,000.  But  the  armistice  under  which  the 
negotiations  had  been  renewed  was  broken,  and  on 
September  8  and  13,  the  battles  of  Molino  del  Rey 
and  Chapultepec  were  fought,  and  the  capital  was 
occupied  on  September  14.  A  revolution  in  the  af 
fairs  of  Mexico  now  took  place,  and  the  new  Gov 
ernment  appointed  commissioners  on  November  22, 
to  treat  with  Trist. 

However,  the  news  of  these  battles  and  victories 
had  aroused  the  expansionist  instincts  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  or  at  least  of  the  articulate 
classes,  to  the  point  of  demanding  the  annexation  of 
the  whole  of  Mexico.  Sober  newspapers,  like  the 
New  York  Evening  Post,  officers  of  the  navy  and 


WAR  AND  CONQUEST  157 

the  army,  like  Commodore  Stockton  and  Colonel 
Jefferson  Davis,  the  hero  of  the  battle  of  Buena 
Vista,  and  leading  politicians,  John  A.  Dix,  Lewis 
Cass,  and  Secretary  Walker,  urged  the  Government 
to  make  an  end  of  Mexico  by  prompt  dismember 
ment.  Although  the  election  of  Representatives  in 
1846  had  resulted  in  giving  the  Whigs  control  of 
the  House,  Congress  seemed  disposed  to  yield  to  the 
popular  clamor  as  they  came  together  in  December, 
1847,  when  the  news  of  the  raising  of  the  Ameri 
can  flag  over  the  city  of  Mexico  was  fresh  in  the 
public  mind. 

Polk  found  his  Cabinet  divided  on  the  subject  of 
"  all  Mexico,"  with  the  preponderance  of  influence 
in  favor  of  annexation.  Buchanan  gave  out  a  public 
letter  in  which  he  said,  "  Destiny  beckons  us  to  hold 
and  civilize  Mexico."  Walker  threatened  to  urge 
the  absorption  of  Mexico  in  his  report  to  Congress. 
The  flag  should  never  be  hauled  down  from  the  ram 
parts  of  the  captured  capital  of  Mexico.  Polk  re 
sisted  this  pressure,  but  he  recalled  Trist  just  before 
the  beginning  of  the  final  negotiations  with  Mexico. 
On  the  advice  of  General  Scott,  Trist  refused  to  obey 
the  President,  and  both  he  and  the  general  hastened 
the  negotiations. 

Although  the  Whigs  were  also  infected  with  the 
expansionist  fever,  Henry  Clay  came  out  of  his  re 
tirement  at  Ashland,  near  Lexington,  and  on  No 
vember  13,  made  an  impassioned  appeal  to  the 
country  against  the  wickedness  of  despoiling  a  help 
less  neighbor;  John  Quincy  Adams,  nearing  the 
end  of  his  career,  continued  to  denounce  the  whole 


158         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Mexican  movement.  But  Webster,  an  ardent  can 
didate  now  for  the  Whig  nomination  in  1848,  said 
little  and  took  this  occasion  to  visit  the  South  and 
West.  Calhoun  made  it  his  especial  business  in  the 
Senate  to  defeat  what  he  thought  was  the  Presi 
dent's  purpose,  the  annexation  of  all  Mexico.  But 
the  prospect  of  success  of  these  "  little  Americans  " 
was  far  from  bright. 

When  the  Trist  treaty,  giving  satisfaction  on  all 
the  points  raised  in  Slidell's  mission  and  selling  to 
the  United  States  both  California  and  New  Mexico, 
reached  Washington  in  February,  1848,  there  was 
every  temptation  to  reject  it.  The  ablest  members 
of  the  Cabinet  insisted  upon  its  rejection ;  a  scheme 
for  the  establishment  of  a  protectorate  over  Yuca 
tan,  which  was  expected  to  eventuate  in  annexation, 
was  being  urged,  and  the  rumors  of  approaching 
convulsions  in  Europe  were  heartening  leading  mem 
bers  of  Congress.  Why  should  not  the  United  States 
fulfill  her  destiny  ?  There  was  none  to  interfere  or 
make  afraid.  Senator  Foote,  of  Mississippi,  urged 
in  glowing  terms  the  advantages  of  "  extending 
American  liberty  "  over  Central  America ;  Senator 
Hannegan,  of  Indiana,  fairly  represented  his  sec 
tion  when  he  said  that  the  time  had  come  for  the 
United  States  to  take  Canada,  too,  and  make  the 
boundaries  of  North  America  the  boundaries  of  the 
great  Republic ;  and  Senator  Cass  was  making  his 
campaign  for  the  Democratic  nomination  on  the  plea 
that  the  time  was  ripe  for  the  extinguishment  of  the 
remnants  of  European  authority  on  the  continent. 

The  President,  worn  out  with  the  toils  of  office 


WAR  AND  CONQUEST  159 

and  determined  not  to  seek  renomination,  decided 
to  accept  the  treaty,  and  the  Senate,  in  spite  of  the 
warmest  harangues  of  the  extremists,  promptly  ap 
proved  the  work  of  Trist  and  Scott,  for  the  general 
had  had  much  to  do  with  the  negotiations.  The  war 
had  come  to  an  end,  though  there  were  still  further 


efforts  to  undo  the  treaty  by  seizing  Yucatan,  and 
there  was  much  complaint  from  leading  Senators 
and  Representatives  at  the  alleged  weakness  of 
Polk. 

At  a  cost  of  a  few  thousand  lives  and  some  eighty 
million  dollars,  eight  hundred  thousand  square  miles 
of  territory  had  been  added  to  the  country  and  the 
long-standing  quarrel  with  Mexico  about  Texas  had 
been  brought  to  an  end.  The  Treasury  had  stood 
well  the  heavy  strain  of  war,  every  bond  that  had 
been  issued  had  been  readily  taken  at  par  and  on  a 
low  rate  of  interest  —  an  unprecedented  fact  in 


160        EXPANSION  AND   CONFLICT 

American  history.  The  hard  times  of  the  preceding 
decade  seemed  to  be  brought  to  a  conclusion.  No 
one  complained  at  the  tariff,  and  even  the  veto  of 
the  internal  improvements  bill  was  passing  out  of 
the  public  mind.  The  South  and  the  West  had  car 
ried  their  program.  Polk  retired  to  his  home  to  die 
a  few  months  later.  There  had  been  no  appreciable 
public  demand  for  his  renomination  ;  and,  rather 
strange  to  say,  both  the  people  and  the  historians 
consigned  him  to  comparative  oblivion. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

G.  P.  Garrison's  Westward  Extension  (1906),  in  the  American 
Nation  series,  has  given  us  the  best  brief  general  survey  of  the 
expansion  movement  which  closed  with  the  war  with  Mexico.  An 
exhaustive  treatment  of  the  Texas  question  is  Justin  H.  Smith's 
The  Annexation  of  Texas  (1911),  and  George  L.  Rives's  The  United 
States  and  Mexico,  1821-1848  (1913),  is  almost  as  complete  for  the 
Mexican  War.  A  good  history  of  Oregon  and  the  Oregon  move 
ment  has  not  yet  been  written;  but  Robert  Greenhow's  History  of 
Oregon  (1870),  H.  H.  Bancroft's  Oregon,  in  his  voluminous  Western 
history  series,  and  Josiah  Royce's  California,  in  the  American  Com 
monwealths  series,  are  all  valuable.  Some  special  articles  of  im 
portance  are:  The  Slidell  Mission  to  Mexico,  by  L.  M.  Sears,  in 
South  Atlantic  Quarterly  for  1912;  E.  G.  Bourne's  The  United 
States  and  Mexico,  18^7-^8,  in  the  American  Historical  Review, 
vol.  v,  p.  491;  and  W.  E.  Dodd's  The  West  and  the  War  with 
Mexico,  in  the  Journal  of  the  Illinois  State  Historical  Society  for 
1911.  The  sources  which  some  may  wish  to  consult  are  The  Diary 
of  James  K.  Polk,  edited  by  M.  M.  Quaife  and  published  by  the 
Chicago  Historical  Society  (1910);  Lyon  G.  Tyler's  The  Times  of 
the  Tylers,  already  mentioned;  John  Quincy  Adams's  Memoir,  also 
frequently  cited;  The  Correspondence  of  John  C.  Calhoun,  The 
Works  of  Calhoun  (1853-55),  edited  by  R.  K.  Cralle;  and  the 
writings  of  both  Clay  and  Webster  as  given  in  the  notes  to  pre 
vious  chapters.  Niles's  Register,  a  weekly  periodical  published  in 
Baltimore  from  1811  to  1849,  is  a  never-failing  resource  for  the 
current  of  public  opinion. 


CHAPTEK  IX 

THE    ABOLITIONISTS 

THE  overthrow  of  the  Democratic  party  in  1848 
was  due,  not  to  the  ruthless  exploitation  of  Mexico 
nor  to  dissatisfaction  with  the  new  economic  policy, 
but  to  the  abiding  distrust  of  the  aristocratic  South 
and  its  slavery  system  by  the  small  business  menancJX 
farmers  of  the  North.  The  greater  the  success  of 
Polk,  the  greater  the  danger  to  the  older  virtues  of 
the  Kepublic,  a  simple  life  and  faith  in  the  ideals 
of  freedom  and  equality.  As  we  have  seen,  the  South 
had  given  up  these  ideals,  and  the  tobacco,  cotton, 
and  sugar  planters  governed  there  with  increasing 
success  and  acceptability. 

There  had  been  persistent  economic  and  religious 
opposition  to  the  growth  of  the  plantation  system. 
In  the  closing  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  most 
people  in  the  South  disliked  slavery,  and  in  Ken 
tucky  majorities  of  the  voters  sustained  the  first  ab 
olition  movement  of  radical  tendencies  in  the  coun 
try  ;  but  the  excitement  over  the  Alien  and  Sedition 
Laws  eclipsed  at  the  critical  moment  the  public  in 
terest  in  the  anti-slavery  struggle.  Other  outcrop- 
pings  of  the  same  hostility  to  slavery,  as  already 
noted,  were  made  evident  in  the  meetings  of  Presby 
terian  and  Methodist  church  conferences  between 
1815  and  1825  in  Maryland,  western  Virginia,  Ten 
nessee,  and  North  Carolina.  But  all  these  efforts 


162         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

failed  and  the  Southern  abolitionists,  as  we  have 
seen,  having  "fought  the  good  fight,"  emigrated 
to  the  Northwest  about  1830,  when  Virginia  failed 
to  rid  herself  of  the  growing  "  incubus."  Just  as 
Birney  and  Rankin  "  took  up  arms  "  in  Ohio  there 
arose  a  fiercer  champion  of  their  cause  in  the  East, 
where  distance  from  the  scene,  lack  of  intimate 
knowledge  of  "the  system,"  and  a  strong  popular 
dislike  of  the  South  gave  unwonted  strength  to  the 
new  evangelism.  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  son  of  a 
Massachusetts  sea  captain,  was  in  a  humor  to  reform 
a  world  which  "  sat  in  darkness."  He  declared  negro 
slavery  the  one  great  evil  of  his  generation,  and  the 
Federal  Constitution,  which  protected  it,  "an  agree 
ment  with  Hell."  After  some  ill-luck  and  untoward 
experience  in  Baltimore,  he  set  up  in  Boston,  in 
1831,  his  famous  Liberator,  in  which  he  said  he 
would  be  heard,  and  henceforth  his  paper  appeared 
every  week  until  the  close  of  the  Civil  War.  Every 
scrap  of  news,  true  or  untrue,  which  reflected  the 
cruelty  of  the  slavery  system,  the  lust  of  some  brutal 
master,  or  the  growing  power  of  the  Southern  States 
in  national  politics  he  repeated  and  exploited.  It  was 
"  yellow  journalism  "  in  a  peculiar  sense.  But  a  sin 
gle  weekly  paper  published  in  Boston,  where  the  com 
mercial  and  industrial  interests  had  created  an  aris 
tocracy  almost  as  exclusive  as  that  of  the  South,  could 
hardly  be  expected  to  accomplish  a  great  deal.  The 
other  papers  of  the  city  would  not  publish  his  "  stor 
ies,"  nor  pay  any  attention  to  his  earnest  appeals. 

He  made  another  move  upon  the  intrenched  posi 
tion   of   the    enemy.    Between   1831   and  1835  he 


THE  ABOLITIONISTS  163 

organized  abolition  societies,  whose  members  took 
vows  to  u  fight  on  and  fight  ever"  till  success  should 
be  attained.  These  societies  were  naturally  numer 
ous  in  all  those  sections  of  New  England,  the  Mid 
dle  States,  and  the  Northwest  where  hostility  and 
even  hatred  to  the  masterful  South  prevailed.  Pure 
idealists,  small  farmers,  village  merchants,  the  unsuc 
cessful,  and  debtors  who  dreamed  of  an  America  of 
which  the  Declaration  of  Independence  speaks  be 
came  abolitionists.  Orators  were  employed,  speaking 
campaigns  were  arranged,  and  the  slogan  was  always 
immediate  and  uncompensated  abolition  of  negro 
slavery.  The  more  democratic  churches  were  invaded 
and  their  preachers  were  enlisted  ;  or,  when  these  re 
sisted,  placarded  as  unfriendly  to  mankind.  Before 
1840  not  less  than  fifteen  thousand  Methodists  re 
fused  association  with  other  Methodists  who  would 
not  declare  war  on  slavery.  Nearly  all  of  these  lived 
in  western  Massachusetts  and  upper  New  York. 
These  revolutionists  carried  their  cause  to  the  Meth 
odist  General  Conference  in  New  York  in  1844,  and 
the  great  Church  was  broken  into  two  branches :  a 
Northern  and  a  Southern.  The  Baptists  of  New  Eng 
land  refused  the  same  year  to  support  a  missionary 
who  was  also  a  slaveholder,  and  immediately  the 
Alabama  Baptists  refused  to  fellowship  their  North 
ern  brethren.  The  Southern  Baptist  Convention, 
head  of  the  denomination  for  all  the  Southern  States, 
was  organized  the  next  year  at  Augusta.  The  fact, 
already  noted,  that  both  these  sundered  denomina 
tions  almost  doubled  their  membership  in  the  next 
few  years  shows  the  strong  sectionalism  of  the  issue. 


164        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Nor  did  the  public  men  of  the  North  escape  the 
ordeal  of  ardent  abolitionism.  William  H.  Seward, 
a  conservative  by  nature,  became  an  anti-slavery 
Whig  of  national  influence  in  1843  ;  Joshua  R.  Gid- 
dings,  of  the  Western  Reserve,  and  Elijah  P.  Love- 
joy,  of  Illinois,  accepted  the  agitator's  commissions 
and  sought  to  unite  the  new  idealism  with  the  old 
Americanism.  But  John  Quincy  Adams,  who  had 
never  been  a  democrat  and  who  did  not  sympathize 
with  Garrison,  became  the  arch-leader  of  the  aboli 
tionists  in  Congress  from  1836  to  his  death  in  1848. 
Smarting  under  the  ill-treatment  of  Southern  poli 
ticians,  it  was  easy  for  the  able  ex-President  to  be 
come  the  political  exponent  of  the  new  anti-Southern 
agitation.  In  no  other  country  of  that  time  could  a 
movement  like  American  abolitionism  have  gained 
such  a  hearing.  In  England  the  Government,  that  is 
the  people,  never  dreamed  of  destroying  without 
compensation  the  millions  of  property  in  the  West 
Indian  slaves.  But  American  abolitionists  declared 
that  there  could  be  no  property  in  man,  just  as  the 
socialists  say  there  can  be  no  property  in  land.  To 
destroy  outright  the  property  which  underlay  the 
Southern  political  power  and  the  Southern  aris 
tocracy  was  the  aim  of  Garrison,  and  he  found  able 
men,  owners  of  large  estates  in  the  North,  who  were 
willing  to  do  what  he  urged. 

Petitions  asking  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia  were  presented  to  Congress  by 
John  Quincy  Adams  in  increasing  numbers  from 
1831  to  1836.  Southern  men  denied  that  the  na 
tional  legislature  had  the  power  to  destroy  property 


THE  ABOLITIONISTS  165 

protected  by  the  Constitution ;  Northern  men,  espe 
cially  representatives  of  the  farmer  districts,  insisted 
that  the  right  of  petition  was  fundamental  to  the 
Constitution  itself.  There  was  a  deadlock  in  Con 
gress,  for  the  South  controlled  the  Senate,  while  the 
North  controlled  the  House.  In  this  state  of  things, 
Southern  legislatures  formally  denounced  the  aboli 
tion  movement  as  endangering  the  Union,  and  asked 
Congress  to  protect  them  from  the  floods  of  abolition 
literature  which  the  United  States  mails  carried 
into  communities  where  negro  slaves  were  in  the  ma 
jority  and  where  insurrections  were  likely  to  occur. 

In  Charleston  the  people  refused  to  allow  the 
postmaster  to  deliver  the  objectionable  mail  matter. 
The  subject  was  carried  to  President  Jackson  in 
1835,  and  he  decided  that  the  uneasy  masters  of 
South  Carolina  were  justified  in  their  protest.  Cal- 
houn,  like  Adams  in  New  England,  became  the 
champion  of  his  section,  and  devoted  the  remainder 
of  his  life  to  a  vain  defense  of  slavery  against  the 
"  foul  slanders  "  of  anti-slavery  agitators. 

In  May,  1836,  after  a  fierce  struggle  in  the  House, 
it  was  decided  to  lay  upon  the  table  without  debate 
all  petitions  which  dealt  with  slavery.  The  right  of 
petition  was  thus  formally  denied,  since  a  hearing  is 
the  one  thing  prayed  for  in  such  documents.  John 
Quincy  Adams  declared  that  the  rights  of  his  con 
stituents,  as  guaranteed  in  the  Constitution,  were 
thus  abrogated.  On  the  other  hand,  Calhoun  de 
clared  in  the  Senate,  with  equal  truth,  that  the  con 
stitutional  rights  of  his  constituents  would  be  jeop 
ardized  if  the  petitions  were  received  and  debated. 


166         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Great  excitement  prevailed  throughout  the  country, 
for  the  contending  sections  were  too  strong  for  any 
easy-going  compromise  to  be  possible.  Keen  observ 
ers  then  visiting  Washington  wrote  home  that  the 
great  Republic  would  go  to  pieces  if  either  side  won. 
In  the  summer  of  1837,  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy  was 
murdered  at  Alton,  Illinois,  where  he  was  trying  to 
publish,  against  the  wishes  of  the  people,  an  anti- 
slavery  weekly  like  Garrison's.  And  in  Boston  the 
following  December  a  young  aristocrat,  a  Harvard 
graduate  and  a  promising  lawyer,  arose  before  a 
large  audience,  before  whom  the  Attorney-General 
of  the  State  had  just  been  defending  the  Alton  people 
against  attack,  and  declared  that  the  "  earth  should 
have  yawned  and  swallowed  up  "  the  author  of  such 
treasonable  words.  It  was  Wendell  Phillips,  and  from 
that  day  till  the  close  of  the  bitter  sectional  struggle, 
he  was  the  greatest  champion  of  immediate  aboli 
tion,  the  fervent  orator  who  was  ready  to  destroy 
the  Union  in  order  to  destroy  slavery.  Four  years 
after  Phillips  began  his  public  career,  Frederick 
Douglass,  escaping  from  a  slave  plantation  in  Mary 
land,  came  into  contact  with  Garrison,  who  at  once 
commissioned  him  an  orator  of  abolition,  and  the 
brilliant  mulatto  soon  developed  powers  that  gave 
rise  to  jealous  heartburnings  among  the  leading 
agitators.  Lewis  Tappan,  Gerrit  Smith,  the  Misses 
Grimke,  born  in  South  Carolina,  and  a  host  of  other 
enthusiastic  democrats  and  idealists  professed  the  new 
faith.  Contemptuous  of  Church  and  State,  of  union 
and  nationality,  these  apostles  of  the  new  cause  laid 
the  foundations  of  the  great  sectional  party  which 


THE  ABOLITIONISTS  167 

was  later  to  bear  the  name  Republican,  thus  appeal 
ing  to  the  memories  of  Jefferson  and  his  followers  of 
1800. 

It  was  this  hostility  of  the  sections,  always  danger 
ous,  but  exceedingly  so  in  1836,  when  Texas  was 
asking  admission  as  a  slave  State,  that  caused  so 
many  of  the  best  men  of  the  time  to  talk  freely  of 
the  disruption  of  the  Union.  If  Texas  were  annexed, 
the  East  would  secede ;  if  it  were  not  annexed,  the 
South  would  secede.  Van  Buren,  the  head  of  the 
Democratic  party,  and  Clay,  the  master  of  the  Whigs, 
exerted  all  their  influence  in  1844  to  avoid  the  ex 
pected  conflict.  But  President  Tyler,  without  close 
party  affiliations  and  standing  in  need  of  an  issue, 
was  ready  to  take  the  risk.  Radical  expansionists, 
supported  by  substantial  economic  interests  in  the 
South,  urged  the  immediate  annexation  of  Texas, 
while  Adams  and  twenty-one  of  his  colleagues  from 
the  restless  sections  of  the  North  declared  that  the 
addition  of  the  new  region  to  the  Union  would  be 
equivalent  to  a  dissolution  of  the  ties  which  held  the 
warring  sections  together  ; l  and  they  published,  in 
May,  1843,  a  formal  address  to  their  constituents 
calling  upon  them  to  secede.  The  members  of  Con 
gress  who  signed  this  address  represented  the  districts, 
almost  without  exception,  in  which  abolition  had  won 
a  footing. 

The  important  question  was :  Should  the  East 
remain  passive  while  the  annexation  of  "another 
Louisiana"  was  being  consummated  and  thus  al 
low  herself  to  be  submerged. 

1  See  chap,  vii,  pp.  126-127. 


168         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Charles  Sumner,  an  ambitious  young  man,  an  in 
tellectual  kinsman  of  Wendell  Phillips,  one  of  those 
"  transcendentalists  "  of  Massachusetts  of  whom  the 
country  was  to  hear  a  great  deal  in  the  future,  an 
swered  this  question  in  his  famous  "  grandeur-of- 
nations  "  oration  of  July  4, 1845.  The  elite  of  Boston 
had  gathered  for  the  occasion  in  Tremont  Temple, 
and  they  had  invited  the  officers  of  a  warship  then 
lying  in  the  harbor,  the  local  military  men,  and 
others  who  took  pride  in  the  martial  deeds  of  their  an 
cestors,  to  join  in  the  accustomed  celebration  of  the 
Fourth.  Dressed  in  gay,  super-fashionable  attire,  the 
young  Sumner  poured  forth  in  matchless  language 
a  denunciation  of  war,  of  military  and  naval  arm 
aments,  of  President  Polk  and  the  party  in  power, 
which  drove  one  half  of  his  audience  frantic  with  re 
sentment  and  anger.  "  There  is  no  war  which  is  hon 
orable,  no  peace  which  is  dishonorable,"  he  declared 
at  the  outset,  and  for  two  hours  he  massed  his  argu 
ments  and  statistics  to  prove  the  thesis.  The  conser 
vatives  of  Boston  declared  that  it  would  be  the  last 
of  the  young  man.  But  Garrison  and  Phillips  had 
raised  up  another  recruit.  The  oration  which  had 
insulted  half  of  those  who  heard  it  was  published  in 
edition  after  edition  and  distributed  in  the  country 
districts  of  the  North.  Sumner  was  ever  after  in 
great  demand  as  a  speaker  and  anti-Southern  agita 
tor.  He  would  not,  however,  dissolve  the  Union  to 
escape  slavery ;  he  sought  rather  to  mobilize  the  forces 
which  the  abolitionists  were  stirring  to  activity. 

The  war  with  Mexico  came,  victories  were  won, 
and  the  national  enthusiasm  was  running  high  when 


170        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

President  Polk  asked  Congress  in  August,  1846,  to 
vote  him  two  million  dollars  in  order  that  he  might 
have  the  means  of  inducing  Mexico  to  make  satis 
factory  cessions  of  territory.  The  Western  Demo 
crats  were  smarting  under  the  sting  of  the  veto  of 
their  internal  improvements  bill,  and  the  "  people  at 
home  "  were  much  disappointed  at  the  loss  of  half 
of  Oregon,  "given  away,"  some  said,  by  a  President 
who  was  only  interested  in  "  Southern  policies."1 
Jacob  Brinkerhoff,  who  had  had  a  quarrel  with  Polk 
about  the  patronage,  drew  a  proviso  to  be  added  to 
the  appropriation  bill,  which  declared  that  slavery 
should  be  forever  forbidden  throughout  the  pro 
posed  accessions  of  territory.  Judge  Wilmot,  a  quiet 
member  from  Pennsylvania,  was  induced  to  offer 
the  amendment.  He  awoke  next  day  a  famous  man. 
Northern  Whigs  who  had  been  compelled  by 
popular  sentiment  to  support  the  Administration  in 
all  its  war  measures  seized  the  opportunity  to  vote 
for  the  proviso ;  of  course  the  Northwestern  Demo 
crats,  who  were  dissatisfied  because  of  other  matters, 
took  this  chance  to  pay  the  President  for  his  neglect 
of  them.  The  abolitionists  who  were  in  politics  be 
came  more  active,  and  many  orthodox,  that  is  non- 
voting,  followers  of  Garrison  changed  their  views 
and  thenceforward  fought  in  the  ranks  of  party  or 
ganization.  It  was  a  critical  time  for  the  dominant 
South.  Only  the  conservative  Senate  saved  the 
President  from  a  second  unpopular  veto.  A  strong 
popular  sentiment  supported  the  proviso  movement, 
and  when  Congress  reassembled  in  December  the 

1  See  chap,  vm,  152. 


THE  ABOLITIONISTS  171 

determination  of  the  opposition  to  prevent  the  ex 
tension  of  slavery  into  the  new  territory  was  stronger 
than  ever.  The  House  attached  the  proviso  to  the 
appropriation  bill,  which  came  up  again,  and  the 
Senate  a  second  time  defeated  the  anti-slavery 
forces. 

The  South  was  by  this  time  greatly  excited,  and 
Virginia,  South  Carolina,  and  Alabama  declared 
that  the  passage  of  the  proposed  amendment  would 
be  resisted  to  the  point  of  making  open  war.  In  the 
East  and  Northwest,  where  the  abolitionists  were 
numerous,  the  leaders  were  equally  resolute  in  their 
purpose  that  slavery  should  not  profit  by  the  war 
with  Mexico.  Horace  Greeley,  William  H.  Seward, 
and  Salmon  P.  Chase,  a  vigorous  anti-slavery  leader 
of  Ohio,  who  now  came  into  national  prominence, 
were  the  most  powerful  spokesmen  of  the  various 
elements  of  the  opposition,  and  they  were  actively 
laying  the  foundations  of  an  abolition  and  sectional 
party  which  should  ere  long  outvote  the  South. 

The  candidacy  of  Zachary  Taylor,  strongly  sup 
ported  by  Thurlow  Weed,  checked  and  even  de 
feated  the  sectional  purposes  of  the  radicals.  Taylor 
was  the  master  of  a  great  plantation  in  Louisiana, 
and  John  J.  Crittenden,  of  Kentucky,  Ballard  Pres 
ton,  of  Virginia,  and  Alexander  Stephens,  of  Georgia, 
all  good  pro-slavery  men,  rallied  at  once  to  the  pop 
ular  military  chieftain.  Clay  was  promptly  snubbed 
and  Webster's  claims  were  unceremoniously  brushed 
aside.  The  Whig  Convention  of  1848  met  in  Phila 
delphia  in  May.  It  was  under  the  control  of  Weed 
and  his  Southern  allies.  Taylor  was  nominated,  and 


172         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Webster,  Clay,  and  the  other  disgruntled  leaders 
finally  gave  him  their  support.  Nothing  was  said  of 
the  great  issue,  the  spread  of  slavery  over  the  new 
accessions;  and  the  party,  as  in  1840,  went  before 
the  country  without  a  platform.  Nor  was  the  can 
didate  allowed  to  make  speeches  or  write  public  let 
ters,  which  was  doubtless  wise,  for  Taylor  knew 
little  of  public  questions.  It  was  said  that  he  had 
never  voted,  and  he  claimed  to  belong  to  no  party. 
The  Whigs  took  him  on  his  reputation  as  a  soldier 
and  on  the  recommendation  of  the  great  New  York 
"  boss."  His  candidacy  probably  saved  the  party 
from  breaking  into  two  hostile  wings. 

When  the  Democratic  Convention  assembled  in 
Baltimore  in  May,  1848,  Cass  met  with  little  op 
position.  His  stout  imperialism  had  won  him  the 
leadership  of  the  expansionist  West  and  South.  The 
radical  pro-slavery  men  of  the  lower  South,  who 
feared  his  former  friendliness  to  the  Wilmot  Pro 
viso  leaders,  had  been  satisfied,  with  a  few  excep 
tions,  by  the  Nicholson  letter  of  December,  1847, 
in  which  Cass  laid  down  the  doctrine  that  the  settlers 
in  any  new  region  should  be  allowed  to  determine 
for  themselves  whether  they  would  have  slaves  or 
not.  It  was  the  same  idea  which  Douglas  made 
famous  in  his  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  of  1854,  and 
which  the  country  then  dubbed  "  squatter-sover 
eignty."  Cass  was  nominated  and  the  Nicholson 
letter  was  made  the  platform;  all  the  leaders  of  the 
party  gave  him  hearty  support,  save  those  who  had 
been  humiliated  at  Baltimore  four  years  before  by 
the  defeat  of  Van  Buren.  Van  Buren  himself  doubt- 


THE  ABOLITIONISTS  173 

less  remembered  that  Cass  had  lent  assistance  to  the 
astute  Southern  politicians  who  had  compassed  his 
fall. 

It  was  difficult  to  say  which  of  the  great  parties 
was  the  weaker,  the  Whigs  with  both  Webster  and 
Clay  sulking,  or  the  Democrats  with  the  shrewd  Van 
Buren  awaiting  his  opportunity  to  punish  his  ene 
mies.  The  opportunity  came  in  the  nomination  of 
Van  Buren  by  the  Liberty  Party  Convention,  which 
met  later  in  the  summer  at  Syracuse.  The  Van 
Buren  wing  of  the  New  York  Democracy  approved 
the  Syracuse  Convention,  and  the  Free-Soil  party 
began  its  first  and  only  campaign  with  the  ex-Presi 
dent  as  its  candidate.  Van  Buren  received  nearly 
300,000  votes  in  November  and  prevented  Cass 
from  becoming  President.  He  had  avenged  himself. 
The  South  found  her  alliance  with  the  Northwest 
broken,  but  a  Southern  slave-owner  was  to  be  the 
next  President. 

As  so  often  happens  in  American  history,  the  elec-  \  * 
tion  settled  nothing,  for  the  victorious  Whigs,  as  in  \ 
1840,  had  no  program,  and  their  candidate  had  no    ) 
political  record.   When  the  Administration  began  its/ 
work,  it  was  found  expedient  to  underwrite  practi 
cally  all  that  the  Polk  Administration   had   accom 
plished.  There  was  no  idea  of  reopening  the  bank  or 
financial  questions ;  and   the  tariff  was  already  so 
successful  that  it   would  have  been   plain  folly  to 
change  it.  In  the  foreign  policy  of  the  country  the 
Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty  with  England  dealt  with  the 
proposed  isthmian  canal.  By  this  agreement  the  two 
contracting  parties  promised  not  to  acquire  further 


174         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

interests  in  Central  America,  and  thus  in  a  way  nul 
lified  the  concessions  of  Colombia  of  1846,  under 
which  Polk  had  hoped  for  the  building  of  a  canal 
across  Panama. 

The  one  absorbing  question  after  the  inauguration 
of  Taylor  was  that  which  both  the  great  parties  had 
side-stepped  during  the  campaign,  namely,  what 
should  be  done  with  sla-very  in  the  Territories.  The 
Southern  Whigs  sought  day  and  night  to  gain  the 
ear  of  the  President,  and  the  Southern  Democrats 
were  not  less  persistent.  Both  aimed  at  the  same 
thing,  the  extension  of  their  favorite  institution. 
And  now  that  the  fight  for  slavery  in  Oregon  was 
recognized  as  lost,  this  Southern  wooing  of  the  new 
President  became  the  more  intense.  It  was  a  desper 
ate  situation  for  the  South.  The  Northwest  was 
rapidly  expanding  toward  the  Pacific  and  building- 
up  free  States  which  might  at  any  time  repudiate 
their  allegiance  to  the  South.  Now  the  Treaty  of 
Guadalupe-Hidalgo  opened  a  great  hinterland  for 
the  South,  extending  by  the  easiest  passes  over  the 
mountains  to  California.  But  the  abolitionists  de 
clared  that  the  South  should  not  expand  in  that 
direction  save  at  the  expense  of  slavery.  The  Pre 
sident's  attitude  might  determine  the  matter. 

The  discovery  of  gold  in  amazingly  rich  deposits 
in  California  hastened  the  conflict  of  the  rival  sec 
tions.  During  the  second  half  of  1848  and  all  through 
1849  thousands  of  Southerners,  Easterners,  and 
Westerners  rushed  pell-mell  into  the  new  Eldorado, 
bent  on  making  hasty  fortunes  and  oblivious  of  the 
anxious  thoughts  of  statesmen.  The  motley  gold- 


THE  ABOLITIONISTS  175 

diggers  needed  government.  They  asked  Polk  to 
provide  it.  He  failed  to  grant  it.  Congress  could 
not  do  so  because  of  the  deadlock  over  slavery. 
Benton  wrote  a  public  letter  to  the  Californians  ad 
vising  them  to  form  a  government  for  themselves, 
and  his  son-in-law,  John  C.  Fremont,  went  to  the 
new  community  to  help  the  cause  and  perhaps  to 
come  back  to  Washington  as  one  of  their  Senators. 
In  1849,  the  Californians  formed  a  State  Govern 
ment,  and  the  new  legislature  sent  their  constitution 
and  two  Senators,  one  of  whom  was  Fremont,  on  to 
Washington  early  the  next  year.  Admission  as  a 
full-fledged  State  was  asked.  They  had  failed  to 
mention  slavery  in  their  constitution. 

President  Taylor  had  at  last  decided  to  admit  to 
his  counsels  the  anti-slavery  leaders  of  the  Whig 
party,  and  he  filled  his  Cabinet  with  men  who  would 
support  him  as  against  Clay  and  Webster.  William 
H.  Seward  became  the  confidential  adviser  to  the 
President  and  a  sort  of  Administration  leader  of  the 
Senate.  Southern  Whigs  like  Stephens,  who  had 
done  much  to  secure  for  Taylor  the  Presidency,  were 
without  influence,  and  they  feared  that  all  the  anti- 
slavery  elements  of  the  North  were  combining  to 
control  the  Government, 

While  California  was  shaping  her  own  course  and 
the  President  was  making  his  decision  as  between 
the  factions  of  his  party,  South  Carolina  and  Mis 
sissippi  took  the  lead  in  a  movement  to  prevent  that 
or  any  other  State  or  Territory  from  being  brought 
into  the  Union  if  slavery  were  not  duly  recognized. 
Whigs  and  Democrats  joined  in  great  mass  meet- 


176         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

ings,  which  showed  conclusively  that  the  lower  South 
Vwas  in  earnest.  All  classes  of  the  people  united  in 
what  seemed  to  be  almost  the  unanimous  wish  of  the 
South,  that  the  new  Southwest  should  be  preserved 
for  the  expansion  of  slavery.  These  meetings  spread 
over  all  the  lower  Southern  States,  and  as  a  result, 
a  convention  was  called  to  meet  in  Nashville  in  June, 
1850.  The  object  of  this  general  convention  was  to 
present  to  Congress  a  Southern  ultimatum,  and  in 
the  event  that  this  should  not  be  heeded,  to  urge 
the  secession  of  the  slaveholding  States. 

In  the  West  the  crisis  did  not  seem  so  acute.  But 
Clay,  now  seventy-four  years  old,  and  cured  of  his  ambi 
tion  to  be  President,  was  sent  back  to  the  Senate  in  the 
hope  of  averting  the  calamity  of  a  disruption  of  the 
Union.  Thomas  H.  Ben  ton,  though  recently  defeated 
in  a  campaign  for  reelection,  was  still  in  the  Senate. 
Cass  was  again  a  member  of  the  Senate,  and  he,  too, 
felt  that  the  Union  was  about  to  be  dissolved. 
Douglas  and  the  other  younger  representatives  of 
the  Northwest,  who  had  suffered  somewhat  from  the 
legislation  of  1846,  ceased  to  nurse  their  grievances 
against  the  party,  and  deplored  the  "  treason  "  of 
the  abolitionists  who  were  making  all  the  trouble. 
There  was  undoubtedly  a  crisis  which  Southern  lead 
ers  like  Davis,  Stephens,  Yancey,  and  Robert  Toombs, 
another  able  Georgian  who  now  came  into  national 
prominence,  took  pains  to  lay  to  the  charge  of  the 
radical  anti-slavery  people  of  the  East ;  that  is,  to 
Seward  and  his  followers,  who  were  allowing  Garri 
son  and  Phillips  and  the  radical  abolitionists  to  drive 
them  into  open  opposition  to  the  South. 


THE  ABOLITIONISTS  177 

When  Clay  came  back  to  Washington,  Taylor  and 
his  Cabinet  had  taken  their  stand,  which  was  to  rec 
ommend  the  admission  of  California  as  a  free  State. 
The  Mormons  in  Deseret  and  a  few  Americans  and 
Mexicans  in  New  Mexico  had  taken  steps  toward 
organizing  Territories  in  the  region  between  Texas 
and  eastern  California,  and  they  were  to  be  made 
Territories  with  or  without  slavery,  as  they  chose.  If  * 
all  this  were  done,  the  South  would  secede  and  the 
Administration  would  be  in  a  dilemma.  Taylor  was 
a  stubborn  man ;  he  had  made  up  his  mind,  and  he 
sent  to  Congress  a  fatherly  message  in  which  his 
devotion  to  the  Union  above  everything  else  was 
very  evident.  If  the  Southerners,  who  were  then 
offering  Texas  military  assistance  to  make  good  her 
claim  to  a  large  part  of  New  Mexico,  chose  to  resist 
the  lawful  authority  of  the  Administration  and  war 
came,  the  fault  would  be  theirs,  not  his. 

But  Henry  Clay  and  Daniel  Webster  still  enjoyed 
much  more  of  the  confidence  of  the  people  of  the 
country,  North  and  South,  than  the  President.  Nor 
was  Webster  less  popular  because  he  had  been  ig 
nored  by  the  Administration.  He  was  in  his  place  in 
the  Senate.  Calhoun  was  also  there.  It  was  an  ex 
ceedingly  able  Congress,  that  to  which  Taylor  and 
Seward  must  look  for  support.  With  scant  courtesy 
to  the  President,  Clay  took  the  lead  in  the  Senate 
late  in  January  and  offered  his  plan  of  compromising 
the  sectional  quarrel.  He  would  make  a  free  State  of 
California,  allow  Utah,  as  Deseret  came  to  be  called, 
and  New  Mexico  to  form  Territorial  Governments 
without  mention  of  slavery,  pay  Texas  ten  million 


178         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

dollars  for  her  claims  against  New  Mexico,  abolish 
the  slave  trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  en 
act  a  Fugitive  Slave  Law  which  would  satisfy  the 
border  Southern  States. 

Excitement  was  too  intense  for  the  two  parties  in 
the  Senate  and  House  to  accept  immediately  this 
comprehensive  plan.  The  President  opposed  it;  the 
extreme  men  of  the  South  opposed  it.  But  Clay  had 
not  lost  his  power  to  charm,  and  he  was  still  a  good 
manager,  according  to  the  polite  phraseology  of  the 
day.  He  quietly  secured  the  support  of  Thomas 
Ritchie,  editor  of  the  Democratic  organ  at  Wash 
ington,  The  Union ;  he  broke  the  hold  of  Calhoun 
on  Mississippi  by  winning  to  his  side  Senator 
Henry  S.  Foote,  a  fiery  Democrat  and  foremost  ad 
vocate  of  Southern  resistance ;  and  within  the  next 
three  months  most  of  the  Southern  Whiffs  who  were 

O 

preparing  to  take  part  in  the  Nashville  convention 
indicated  their  change  of  heart.  Clay's  method,  al 
most  exactly  parallel  to  that  by  which  Jackson  had 
defeated  Calhoun  in  1833,  was  to  steal  away  the 
hearts  of  Whigs  and  Westerners,  to  whom  the  Union 
was  still  sacred,  and  leave  the  radical  South  isolated. 
And  in  support  of  his  compromise  the  old  statesman 
made  most  moving  appeals  during  February  and 
March.  It  was  the  greatest  moment  of  his  life,  he 
thought,  and  in  this  his  colleagues  were  fully  agreed. 
But  Calhoun  and  the  ardent  representatives  of 
the  lower  South,  supported  by  nearly  all  of  the 
spokesmen  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  were 
the  obstacles  in  the  way  of  a  settlement.  They  de 
manded  a  slave  State  in  California  and  free  access, 


THE  ABOLITIONISTS  179 

under  the  protection  of  the  Union,  to  all  the  new 
Mexican  territory.  The  extension  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  line  to  the  Pacific  would  have  satisfied 
them.  Or  failing  in  this,  Calhoun  asked  for  an  amend 
ment  to  the  Federal  Constitution  which  should 
create  a  dual  presidency  in  which  each  section  was 
always  to  have  a  veto  over  the  legislation  of  Con 
gress.  Permanent  deadlock  was  thus  proposed  as 
the  remedy  for  the  ills  of  sectional  conflict.  Resolute 
as  the  old  nationalist  was,  he  could  not  bring  himself 
in  these  closing  days  of  his  life  to  pronounce  to  his 
party  the  word  "  secession."  It  was  pathetic  to  see 
the  disappointed  and  broken  leader  of  the  South  as 
he  literally  wore  his  life  away  trying  to  defeat  Clay, 
his  lifelong  antagonist,  or  to  conciliate  Webster,  for. 
whom  he  had  always  entertained  a  hearty  respect. 

Upon  Webster  and  his  conservative  Eastern  sup 
port  depended  the  outcome.  He  had  never  been  a 
democrat,  and  as  he  had  grown  older,  he  had  come 
to  sympathize  more  than  formerly  with  the  great 
property  interests  of  the  South,  which  were  not  un 
like  the  industrial  interests  of  the  East,  for  which  he 
had  broken  many  a  lance.  He,  too,  had  been  a  rival 
of  Clay  since  1832,  and  three  times  a  disappointed 
candidate  for  the  Whig  nomination  for  the  Presi 
dency.  But  both  he  and  Clay  had  been  brushed 
aside  in  1848  by  Thurlow  Weed  and  the  young  Wil 
liam  H,  Seward  with  rather  scant  ceremony.  And 
the  abolitionists  of  New  England  were  as  noisome  to 
him  as  were  the  radical  secessionists  to  Henry  Clay. 
Charles  Sumner  and  his  friends  were  already  wag 
ing  incessant  war  upon  him.  He  took  his  stand  on 


180        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

March  7,  and  he  made  the  day  famous.  He  spoke  for 
the  Union,  and  the  effect  of  the  speech  was  probably 
the  postponement  of  the  Civil  War.  Although  he  was 
again  the  follower  of  Clay,  he  was  henceforth  "  the 
Godlike  Webster  "  to  Northern  conservatives,  and  the 
large  business  interests  of  his  section  applauded  him 
more  heartily  than  they  had  ever  done  before.  But 
the  price  which  he  paid  for  this  epoch-making  speech 
was  fearful.  The  Massachusetts  abolitionists  groaned 
at  the  mention  of  his  name,  and  the  poet  Whittier 
pilloried  him  in  the  famous  lines:  — 

"  So  fallen  !  So  lost !  tbe  light  withdrawn 

Which  once  he  wore  ! 
The  glory  from  his  gray  hairs  gone 

Forever  more  ! 
Revile  him  not  —  the  Tempter  hath 

A  snare  for  all  ; 
And  pitying  tears,  not  scorn  and  wrath, 

Befit  his  fall." 

Clay  had  won.  The  President,  resisting  to  the 
last  and  following  the  counsels  of  Seward,  saw  the 
majority  of  Congress  yield  slowly  to  influences  which 
favored  compromise.  Calhoun  died  early  in  April, 
and  though  his  followers  maintained  their  position 
resolutely,  their  Whig  allies  were  deserting  them, 
and  the  Nashville  convention  proved  a  fiasco  when  it 
assembled  in  June.  President  Taylor  died  on  the  9th 
of  July,  and  the  last  obstacle  to  the  success  of  Clay 
and  Webster  was  removed.  Millard  Fillmore,  the 
Vice-President,  a  close  friend  of  Clay,  became  Presi 
dent;  the  Cabinet  was  reorganized,  Webster  becoming 
Secretary  of  State.  One  by  one  during  the  month  of 
August  all  the  features  of  the  "  Omnibus  Bill "  be- 


California  Election 
of  1852 


The  Presidential  Election 
of  1852 


100  200  300 

Counties'which  returned 
Democratic   Majorities 
I  I  WH?  Majorities 

X  =  No  Returns 

S.C.  vote  is  apportioned. 

Compare  this  map  with  that  of  the  Presidential 

Election  of  1844  for  political  changes;  and  with 

the  Cotton,  Tobacco  and  Industrial  Maps  of 

1840  and  1860  for  Economic  Influences. 


eut  85°  from        Greenwich 


THE  ABOLITIONISTS  181 

came  law.  The  great  majority  of  the  Southerners  in-*' 
dicated  their  ready  acceptance  of  the  compromise  as  a 
"finality"  ;  and  radicals  like  Jefferson  Davis,  Robert 
Barn  well  Rhett,  and  William  L.  Yancey  retired  from 
public  life,  either  voluntarily  or  by  compulsion  of  the 
people.  The  big  cities  of  the  East  and  the  Northwest 
celebrated  the  passage  of  the  crisis  with  the  firing 
of  cannon,  and  everywhere  the  thanks  of  the  people 
were  expressed  to  the  "  great  Congress  "  which  had 
saved  them  from  civil  war. 

If  the  logic  of  events  ever  pointed  to  one  indi 
vidual  as  the  proper  leader  of  the  people  or  the  fit 
man  for  the  Presidency,  it  pointed  to  Daniel  Webster 
in  1852.  The  Whigs  had  not  all  voted  for  the  com 
promise,  but  their  leaders  had  been  its  authors.  The 
party  was  entitled  to  claim  the  glory  for  a  great  per 
formance;  and  if  they  claimed  it  and  nominated  their 
candidate  upon  a  platform  of  "henceforth  there  shall 
be  peace  between  the  sections,"  they  would  undoubt 
edly  win  and  control  the  Federal  Government  for  at 
least  two  or  three  presidential  terms. 

But  with  a  most  remarkable  aptitude  for  blunder 
ing,  the  Whigs  in  their  convention  of  1852  hesitated 
in  their  pronouncement  upon  the  compromise,  and 
refused  to  nominate  Webster.  The  radical  element 
procured  the  nomination  of  General  Winfield  Scott, 
a  Southern  man  of  anti-slavery  proclivities,  and  Scott 
blundered  through  the  campaign,  losing  votes  every 
time  he  made  a  public  statement.  Heart-broken,  the 
"  Godlike  Webster "  died  before  the  day  of  election. 
Nor  was  Clay  spared  to  witness  the  crushing  defeat 
which  awaited  his  beloved  party  in  November.  Tho 


182         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Whig  newspapers  of  that  autumn  appeared  in  mourn 
ing  too  frequently  for  the  public  mind  not  to  be 
affected. 

Conservative  interests  turned  to  the  Democratic 
party,  whose  leaders  promptly  declared  in  their  con 
vention  that  the  compromise  was  a  finality.  They 
nominated  a  popular  but  colorless  young  New  Eng- 
lander,  Franklin  Pierce,  a  colonel  under  Scott  in  the 
war  with  Mexico,  and  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  wrote 
the  campaign  biography.  Pierce  said  little  during 
the  months  of  electioneering.  His  role  and  that  of 
his  party  was  now  one  of  conciliation.  If  elected  he 
would  enforce  the  laws  and  maintain  the  Union. 
Every  State  but  four,  Massachusetts,  Vermont,  Ken 
tucky,  and  Tennessee,  gave  him  their  electoral  votes. 
The  support  of  the  Free-Soil  Democrats,  156,000 
votes  and  all  in  the  abolitionist  sections,  showed  that 
the  country  was  tired  of  agitation.  The  prolonged 
quarrel  of  the  sections  seemed  definitely  closed,  and 
the  future  promised  peace  and  prosperity. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

A.  B.  Hart's  Slavery  and  Abolition  (1906),  in  American  Nation 
series;  F.  J.  and  W.  P.  Garrison's  William  Lloyd  Garrison :  the 
Story  of  his  Life  Told  by  his  Children  (1885-89),  and  both  McMas- 
ter  and  Schouler  in  their  histories,  already  mentioned,  give  all  the 
essential  facts  about  the  abolitionists  and  the  Wilmot  Proviso 
struggle.  James  Ford  Rhodes's  History  of  the  United  States  (from 
1850  to  1877)  is  a  work  of  the  greatest  importance,  and  it  gives,  in 
vol.  i,  the  best  account  of  the  compromise  measures  of  1850.  The 
following  biographies  are  valuable  for  the  period:  T.  W.  Barnes, 
Memoir  of  Thurlow  Weed  (1884) ;  William  Birney,  James  G.  Birney 
and  his  Times  (1890);  G.  L.  Austin,  Life  and  Times  of  Wendell 
Phillips  (1887);  Henry  Cleveland,  Alexander  Stephens  in  Public 


THE  ABOLITIONISTS  183 

and  Private  (1866);  W.  H.  Haynes,  Charles  Sumner  (1909),  in 
American  Crises  series;  A.  C.  McLaughlin,  Lewis  Cass  (1891),  in 
American  Statesmen  series.  Special  for  the  lower  South:  Miss  Cleo 
Hearon,  Mississippi  and  the  Compromise  of  1850  (1914);  W.  G. 
Brown,  The  Lower  South  in  American  History  (1902);  J.  W.  Du- 
Bose,  The  Life  of  William  L.  Yancey;  and  A.  C.  Cole,  The  Whig 
Party  in  the  South  (1913),  named  in  a  previous  note.  J.  D. 
Richardson's  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents  (1900),  vol.  v; 
H.  V.  Ames's  State  Documents  on  Federal  Relations  (1907);  and 
the  Congressional  Globe  for  the  29th  and  30th  Congresses  give  the 
most  important  speeches  and  documents  bearing  on  the  crisis  of 
1850. 


CHAPTER  X 

PROSPERITY 

PARTISAN  opposition  to  Franklin  Pierce  had  almost 
disappeared  before  the  day  of  his  inauguration  in 
1853.  Charles  Sumner,  to  be  sure,  was  in  the  Senate, 
but  he  was  a  silent  member,  and  Massachusetts  in 
clined  to  follow  Edward  Everett  rather  than  Sumner. 
William  H.  Seward  still  spoke  for  the  anti-slavery 
Whigs  in  Congress,  and  Salmon  P.  Chase  maintained 
a  precarious  hold  on  Ohio.  There  was  a  handful  of 
Free-Soilers  in  the  House  of  Representatives  who 
were  ready  to  make  trouble  for  the  new  Adminis 
tration,  and  resistance  to  the  enforcement  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  now  and  then  broke  out  in  riots 
in  certain  neighborhoods  of  New  England  and  in  the 
Western  Reserve.  But  the  opposition  was  every 
where  declining  until  Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe's 
famous  novel,  Uncle  Toms  Cabin,  with  its  exagger 
ated  emphasis  upon  the  cruelties  of  the  slavery  system, 
began  to  stir  the  consciences  of  men.  Even  so  there 
was  no  substantial  evidence  that  any  great  political 
upheaval  or  party  change  would  occur  within  the  next 
fifteen  or  twenty  years.  The  people  were  contented 
with  their  country,  and  the  growth  of  the  population 
gave  evidence  of  a  great  future. 

When  Jackson  came  to  the  Presidency  there  were 
about  12,500,000  people  in  the  country  ;  in  1850  the 
number  had  grown  to  23,000,000,  and  in  1860  there 


PROSPERITY  185 

were  31,000,000.  The  Census  Bureau  estimated  that 
the  population  of  1900  would  be  100,000,000  if 
the  growth  of  the  Pierce  period  was  maintained. 
Not  only  was  the  normal  native  increase  phenomenal, 
but  foreigners  poured  into  "  the  land  of  the  free  "  in 
unprecedented  numbers.  In  1850  there  were  2,800,- 
000  foreign -born  people  in  the  United  States ;  in 
1860  there  were  5,400,000,  and  this  tide  of  immigra 
tion  was  of  a  very  high  social  and  economic  charac 
ter.  The  German  element  was  large,  industrious,  and 
liberty-loving,  many  of  them  being  refugees  from  the 
political  persecutions  of  1832-33  and  1848-50.  The 
English,  Scotch,  and  Irish  composed  most  of  the  re 
mainder,  and  these  were  already  familiar  with  the 
ideals  and  political  habits  of  the  country  and  there 
fore  readily  assimilable.  By  far  the  greater  part  of 
this  rich  contribution  to  American  life  fell  to  the 
cities  of  the  East  and  the  open  country  of  the  North 
west,  where  good  land  was  abundant  and  available  at 
low  prices. 

If  we  compare  the  distribution  of  the  population 
of  1850-60  with  that  of  1830,  we  shall  see  how  well 
the  sectional  balance,  on  which  so  much  depended, 
was  maintained.  In  1830,  the  East1  had  a  popula 
tion  of  6,000,000  in  a  total  of  almost  13,000,000. 
This  had  increased  only  500,000  in  1850  ;  but  be 
tween  1850  and  1860  the  increase  was  nearly  2,000,- 
000.  The  South  had  a  population  of  6,000,000  in 
1830  ;  in  1850,  8,900,000,  and  in  1860  this  had 
grown  to  11,400,000.  The  Northwest  had,  however, 
grown  faster  than  either  of  the  other  sections,  for  her 

1  See  chap,  in  of  this  volume. 


186         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

increase,  including  California  and  Oregon,  had  been 
from  4,800,000  in  1850  to  8,260,000  in  1860  ;  that 
is,  the  growth  of  the  East  during  the  last  decade  of 
ante-bellum  history  was  21  per  cent,  that  of  the 
South,  28  per  cent,  and  that  of  the  Northwest,  77 
per  cent. 

Keeping  in  mind  the  sectional  conditions  of  1830 
as  set  forth  in  the  third  chapter  of  this  volume,  we 
shall  come  to  a  better  understanding  of  the  Civil 
War  if  the  prosperity  of  the  different  parts  of  the 
Union  be  closely  analyzed.  The  people  of  the  United 
States  were  poor  indeed  in  1830  as  compared  with 
1850-60.  Between  1815  and  1846  the  receipts  of 
the  Federal  Treasury  fluctuated  violently ;  but  from 
that  date  to  1860,  except  for  two  years  of  panic, 
the  Federal  Treasury  was  always  full  and  there  was 
generally  an  annual  surplus  of  from  15,000,000  to 
110,000,000.  During  the  Jacksonian  era  the  prices 
of  staple  commodities  fluctuated  as  much  as  fifty  per 
cent  in  single  years.  Cotton  was  twenty  cents  a 
pound  during  all  of  the  twenties ;  it  was  as  low  as 
seven  cents  when  nullification  was  the  critical  issue ; 
but  from  1850  to  1860  cotton  sold  at  ten  or  twelve 
cents.  Corn  was  in  most  places  twenty-five  cents  a 
bushel  during  Jackson's  and  Van  Buren's  Admin 
istrations ;  between  1850  and  1860  it  rose  in  price 
steadily  and  was  almost  everywhere  readily  market 
able  at  fifty  cents  a  bushel.  In  the  era  just  preced 
ing  the  war  prices  were  steadily  rising,  and  the 
demand  for  American  produce,  cotton,  corn,  tobacco, 
wheat,  and  sugar,  was  always  greater  than  the  supply. 

This    prosperity    was    unequally  distributed,    as 


PROSPERITY  187 

always.  The  East  had  developed  her  manufactures 
beyond  all  expectation,  and  the  great  mill  belt 
stretched  from  southeastern  Maine  to  New  York 
City,  its  center  of  gravity,  thence  to  Philadelphia 
and  Baltimore,  and  from  these  cities  westward  to 
Pittsburg.  Another  belt  ancillary  to  this  began  in 
western  Massachusetts  and  extended  along  the  Erie 
Canal  to  Buffalo,  thence  to  Cleveland,  Detroit,  and 
Chicago.  In  these  areas,  or  in  the  industrial  belt  as 
it  may  be  termed,  there  lived  about  4,000,000  mill 
operatives,  whose  annual  output  of  wool,  iron,  and 
cotton  manufactures  alone  was  worth  in  1860  $330,- 
393,000  as  compared  to  the  158,000,000  of  1830. 
Perhaps  the  meaning  of  these  figures  may  become 
clearer  if  we  note  that  the  total  investments  in  these 
industries  was  considerably  less  than  the  yearly  prod 
uct.  Nor  was  the  East  less  prosperous  in  other  lines. 
Her  tonnage  had  increased  from  a  little  more  than 
500,000  in  1830  to  nearly  5,000,000  in  1860.  The 
freight  and  passenger  ships,  built  of  iron,  and  en 
couraged  by  liberal  subsidies  from  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment,  employed  12,000  sailors  and  paid  their 
owners  $70,000,000  a  year.  They  carried  the  manu 
factures  of  the  East  to  the  Southern  plantations,  to 
South  America,  and  to  the  Far  East.  This  great  fleet 
of  commercial  vessels  was  owned  almost  exclusively  in 
Massachusetts,  New  York,  and  Pennsylvania,  and  its 
owners  were  at  the  end  of  the  decade  about  to  wrest 
from  Great  Britain  her  monopoly  of  the  carrying 
trade  of  the  world. 

In  spite  of  the  efforts  of  President  Jackson  and  of 
the  purposes  of  the  sub-treasury  system,  the  concen- 


_-  g 


PROSPERITY  189 

tration  of  capital  in  the  Eastern  towns  and  cities  con 
tinued.  Only  New  York,  instead  of  Philadelphia, 
was  the  new  center.  The  merchants  of  that  city  im 
ported  three  fourths  of  the  European  goods  consumed 
in  the  country,  and  they  in  turn  exported  nearly  all 
of  the  great  crops  with  which  the  balance  of  trade 
was  maintained.  New  York  was  also  a  distributing 
center  for  the  manufactures  of  the  East  which  were 
sent  to  the  South,  the  West,  or  the  outside  world. 
Thus  the  exchanges  of  all  the  sections  were  made 
there,  and  before  1860  its  banks,  with  a  capital  of 
$130,000,000  and  specie  reserves  of  only  $20,000,- 
000,  did  a  business  of  17,000,000,000  a  year.  And 
while  New  York  became  the  American  London,  the 
whole  of  the  East  was  likewise  securing  the  lion's 
share  of  the  banking  profits  of  the  country.  Al 
though  the  assessed  wealth  of  the  section  counted 
only  one  fourth  of  the  total  $16,000,000,000  for  the 
country  in  1860,  the  East  had  nearly  two  thirds  of 
the  banking  capital }  and  the  money  in  circulation 
there  was  $16.5  per  capita  as  against  $6.6  for  the 
country  as  a  whole.1  Industry,  commerce,  shipping, 
and  banking  concentrated  in  the  narrow  area  of  less 
than  200,000  square  miles,  earned  yearly  returns 
equal  as  a  rule  to  the  total  of  the  capital  invested. 
Money  changed  hands  rapidly,  credits  did  the  work 
of  capital,  and  the  rapid  growth  of  population  added 
large  unearned  increments  to  the  fortunes  of  those  who 
owned  land  or  had  established  themselves  in  trade. 

1  This  comparison  is  based  on  the  Census  Reports  for  1860.  It 
does  not  vary  materially  from  the  estimates  given  for  1860  in  Ex 
ecutive  Documents  of  the  Senate,  no.  38, 52d  Cong.,  2d  Sess. 


192        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Naturally  this  concentration  of  industry  and  the 
economic  resources  of  the  country  in  the  East  led  to 
the  rapid  extension  of  railways  into  the  West  and 
South.  The  New  York  Central,  the  Erie,  the  Penn 
sylvania,  and  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  systems  had 
already  been  founded,  and  they  made  connections  in 
1850-53  with  the  canals  and  railways  of  the  Middle 
West.  The  Illinois  Central,  which  connected  the 
lower  South  with  Chicago,  was  affiliated  by  means  of 
interlocking  directorates  with  the  New  York  Cen 
tral  before  1856.  John  M.  Forbes,  the  Boston  capi 
talist,  was  president  of  the  Michigan  Central  during 
the  decade,  and  laying  the  foundations  of  the  Chi 
cago,  Burlington  &  Quincy.  Commodore  Vanderbilt 
was  organizing  his  steamboat  and  railroad  properties 
and  expanding  the  area  of  his  activities  till  it 
reached,  before  1860,  the  rich  grain  belt  of  the  West, 
the  cotton  lands  of  the  South,  the  Far  Eastern  trade 
via  his  Panama  Railroad  and  Pacific  steamers,  and 
the  great  markets  of  Europe.  During  the  decade 
under  consideration  the  capitalists  of  the  East  built 
4000  miles  of  railway  east  of  Pittsburg,  7500  miles 
in  the  Northwest,  and  5000  miles  in  the  South.  But 
the  work  was  not  all  done  at  the  expense  of  the  cap 
italists.  The  Federal  Government  donated  20,000,- 
000  acres  of  the  most  valuable  lands  in  the  country 
to  the  companies  which  built  the  roads  ;  States,  coun 
ties,  and  towns  in  the  West  and  South  voted  many 
millions  for  the  same  purpose ;  and  European  capi 
talists  loaned  $450,000,000  secured  by  first  mort 
gage  bonds  on  the  vast  properties. 

Thus  the  industrial  belt  of  the  East  was  reaching 


PROSPERITY 


193 


out  toward  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  and  New  Orleans  and 
beyond  for  a  commerce  that  was  already  richer  than 
the  gold  mines  of  California ;  and  New  York,  Bos 
ton,  Philadelphia,  the  canal  towns,  and  Pittsburg 
were  becoming  centers  of  wealth  and  economic  power 
which  attracted  the  attention  of  the  world.  Great 
merchants,  like  the  Lawrences  of  Boston  and  the 
Astors  of  New  York,  became  the  objects  of  emula 
tion  everywhere,  and  they  in  turn  set  the  fashion  of 
giving  liberally  of  their  means  to  the  cause  of  educa 
tion  or  the  founding  of  hospitals,  which  has  been  a 
distinctive  feature  of  the  social  history  of  the  last 
thirty  years. 


CountiM  In  which  the  Slaves  number 
less  than  25  percent  of  the  whole  popu 

2hich  the 
5  percent  and  more  of  the  whole  population 

.  SCALE  OF  MILES 


Longitude  West      90' 


Greenwich      85' 


The  planters,  on  the  other  hand,  had  spread  their 
system  over  the  lower  South  in  a  remarkable  manner 
since  1830.  From  eastern  Virginia  their  patriarchal 


194         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

establishments  had  been  pushed  westward  and  south- 
westward  until  in  1860  the  black  belt  reached  to  the 
Rio  Grande.  Tobacco,  cotton,  and  sugar  were  still 
their  great  staples,  and  the  annual  returns  from  these 
were  not  less  than  1300,000,000;  while  the  growth 
of  their  output  between  1850  and  1860  was  more 
than  one  hundred  per  cent.  The  number  of  slaves 
who  worked  the  plantations  had  increased  between 
1830  and  1860  from  2,000,000  to  nearly  4,000,000 
souls,  thus  suggesting  the  comparison  with  the  work 
ers  in  the  mills  of  the  East.  The  exports  of  the  black 
belt  composed  more  than  two  thirds  of  the  total  ex 
ports  of  the  country;  but  they  were  largely  billed 
through  Eastern  ports,  and  most  of  the  imports  of 
the  South  came  through  New  York,  where  a  second 
toll  was  taken  from  the  products  of  the  plantation. 

But  the  ratio  of  annual  returns  to  the  total  invest 
ments  was  very  unlike  that  of  the  East.  In  the  South 
the  assessed  value  of  real  estate  and  personal  prop 
erty,  including  slaves,  in  1860  was  15,370,000,000, 
while  the  returns  for  the  best  years  were  somewhat 
over  1300,000,000  :  that  is,  their  investment  was 
$1,000,000,000  greater  than  that  of  the  East  and 
their  income  not  more  than  a  third  as  great.  Per 
haps  the  banking  statistics  of  the  planter  section  will 
enable  us  to  get  a  better  view  of  their  dependence 
upon  the  East.  The  South  had  in  1860  a  banking 
capital  of  $89,131,000,  a  bank-note  circulation  of 
$68,344,000,  and  money  on  deposit,  $56,342,000. 
Thus  an  annual  return  of  $300,000,000  brought 
deposits  of  only  $56,000,000;  and  the  per  capita 
circulation  was  only  $10.  New  York  City  alone  had 


PROSPERITY  195 

twice  as  much  money  on  deposit  as  all  the  Southern 
States,  though  the  personal  property  valuation  of  the 
whole  State  of  New  York,  with  a  population  four 
times  as  great,  was  only  $320,000,000  as  against 
1240,000,000  for  Virginia. 

Although  the  system  of  agriculture  in  the  South 
had  not  greatly  improved  since  1830,  the  annual 
crops  sold  for  about  four  times  as  much  as  they  had 
brought  when  Jackson  was  President.  In  spite  of 
the  "red  gullies"  and  the  waste  lands,  the  owners 
of  plantations  were  the  wealthy  men  of  the  time. 
The  Hairstons  of  Virginia  and  the  Aikens  of  South 
Carolina  were  counted  as  the  peers  of  the  Astors  of 
New  York.  But  a  Southern  man  worth  14,000,000 
or  15,000,000  would  not  receive  an  annual  income 
of  more  than  $100,000  unless  he  happened  to  be  in 
the  midst  of  a  new  cotton  region.  Still  the  hold  of 
the  planters  on  the  state  and  county  governments  of 
the  South  was,  as  we  have  seen  in  a  former  chapter, 
even  more  secure  than  it  had  been  in  1830,  and 
Southern  public  opinion  was  almost  always  the 
opinion  of  the  planters.  Yet  there  was  great  un 
easiness  in  the  South  as  to  the  future,  and  public 
officials,  railway  magnates,  and  newspaper  men  gath 
ered  in  annual  conventions  to  devise  ways  and 
means  of  increasing  the  power  of  the  South  and  of 
competing  with  the  East  in  the  race  for  economic 
supremacy. 

These  conventions  discussed  scientific  agriculture, 
the  proper  size  of  a  plantation,  and  the  duties  of 
"  Christian  masters  to  their  servants "  ;  they  out 
lined  plans  for  connecting  Southern  ports  with  the 


O     o 

s  I  § 


I 

Jo     W 


198         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Northwest,  for  opening  a  direct  trade  witli  Europe, 
and  for  annexing  territory  which  might  increase  the 
area  of  the  staple  producing  States.  They  supported 
Narciso  Lopez  and  John  A.  Quitman  in  their  fili 
bustering  expeditions  against  Cuba,  and  they  her 
alded  William  Walker,  who  sought  to  make  Nica 
ragua  an  American  slave  State  in  1854-59,  as  a 
statesman  and  "  man  of  destiny."  The  reopening  of 
the  African  slave  trade  was  the  subject  of  long  and 
earnest  debate,  and  Southern  delegations  in  Congress 
were  urged  to  exert  themselves  to  secure  a  repeal  of 
the  law  against  the  slave  trade  in  order  that  the  South 
might  have  some  means  of  increasing  its  laboring  pop 
ulation  to  counterbalance  the  advantages  which  the 
East  and  Northwest  derived  from  immigration.  A 
paramount  purpose  of  these  gatherings  was  to  solid 
ify  the  South  and  to  harmonize  the  interests  of  the 
border  States  with  those  of  the  lower  South.  In  the 
background  of  all  this,  and  especially  after  the  strug 
gle  over  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  in  1854,  there 
was  the  ever-recurring  probability  of  secession  from 
the  Union. 

What  added  to  the  anxieties  of  Southern  leaders 
was  the  extraordinary  growth  and  expansion  of  the 
Northwest.  In  1830  it  had  been  the  East  that  most 
feared  the  development  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  ; 
now  it  was  the  South  that  took  pains  to  hedge  and 
limit  the  opportunities  of  the  newer  States.  And 
there  was  reason  for  the  masterful  politicians  of  the 
cotton  country  to  watch  the  Northwestern  frontier. 
Michigan  had  become  a  State  in  1837,  Iowa  and 
Wisconsin  in  1846,  and  Minnesota  was  to  enter  the 


PROSPERITY  199 

Union  in  1858.  There  were  four  Territories,  Kan 
sas,  Nebraska,  Oregon,  and  Washington,  that  might 
be  admitted  at  any  time.  California  was  growing 
powerful,  and  she  was  already  lost  to  slavery  if  not 
to  the  South.  And  a  free  State  was  likely  to  be 
formed  in  Colorado.  Seven  thriving  Northwestern 
States  and  five  promising  Territories  gave  every  as 
surance  that  the  seat  of  political  influence  was  about 
to  be  shifted  to  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley.  More 
over,  the  economic  changes  that  were  taking  place 
in  that  region  were  such  as  might  have  alarmed  con 
servative  men  both  South  and  East. 

The  removal  of  the  Indians  from  Michigan,  Indi 
ana,  and  Illinois  had  paralleled  the  similar  removal 
from  the  lower  South.  But  during  the  fifties,  Iowa, 
Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota  succeeded  in  pushing  the 
natives  into  the  arid  Nebraska  Territory.  And  now 
as  the  great  "  American  Desert  "  proved  to  be  desir 
able  country  for  the  pioneers,  it  was  proposed  to 
shift  the  Northwestern  Indians  into  the  Southern 
hinterland,  now  known  as  Oklahoma,  and  thus  to 
bar  the  way  of  the  planter  civilization  to  New  Mex 
ico  and  California. 

An  equally  important  factor  in  the  development 
of  the  Northwest  was  the  invention  and  manufacture 
of  grain-planting  and  harvesting  machinery  by  Cyrus 
McCormick  and  others  about  1845.  This  enabled 
the  farmers  to  increase  their  operations  very  much 
as  the  Whitney  gin  had  done  for  the  cotton  farmers 
of  1800.  Still  the  transportation  of  wheat  and  corn 
is  so  difficult  that  no  great  revolution  would  have 
been  possible  but  for  the  simultaneous  building  of 


PROSPERITY  201 

thousands  of  miles  of  railways  which  opened  to  grain 
production  the  vast  prairie  lands  remote  from  the 
rivers.  The  manufacture  of  farm  implements  and 
the  building  of  railroads  made  the  Northwest  a  sta 
ple-producing  area  of  greater  importance  than  the 
South  had  been,  though  this  was  recognized  by  only 
a  few  men  before  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War. 

The  value  of  the  wheat  and  corn  crops  of  the 
Northwest  increased  from  180,000,000  in  1850  to 
$225,000,000  in  1860.  In  addition  to  this  the  North- 
west  produced  pork  in  great  quantities  for  the  cotton 
plantations,  and  fresh  meats  for  the  industrial  cities 
of  the  East.  The  railways,  of  which  mention  has 
already  been  made,  thus  brought  the  isolated  farmers 
of  the  Western  interior  into  close  contact  with  the 
markets  of  the  world,  and  the  Northwest  was  fast  be 
coming  the  food-producing  region  of  the  country  and 
at  the  same  time  exporting  grain  worth  at  least 
$50,000,000  a  year.  In  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
and  other  Eastern  States  the  corn  and  wheat  output 
steadily  declined  between  1850  and  1860,  while  the 
up-country  of  the  South  failed  to  produce  the  food 
stuffs  needed  by  the  planters.  Thus  the  manufactur 
ing  and  the  older  staple-producing  States  came  to 
rely  on  the  Northwest  for  a  large  part  of  their  pro 
visions. 

Western  farmers  were  now  well-to-do.  They  de 
serted  their  log  cabins  and  built  frame  houses ;  they 
bought  large  quantities  of  the  finer  goods  of  the  East. 
Pianos  made  in  Germany  and  silks  from  France 
found  their  way  to  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Iowa.  Vil 
lages  became  towns  and  towns  grew  rapidly  into 


202          EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

cities.  Pittsburg,  Cincinnati,  Cleveland,  and  Chicago 
imitated  the  ways  and  manners  of  Boston  and  New 
York.  It  was  a  busy,  ambitious  life  that  animated 
the  West  and  produced  industrial  leaders  like  Cyrus 
McCormick,  William  B.  Ogden,  and  John  Y.  Seam- 
mon,  and  politicians  like  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  Sal 
mon  P.  Chase,  and  the  Dodges  of  Iowa  and  Wis 
consin. 

But  in  this  busy  region  with  its  self-sufficing  agri 
culture,  the  actual  surplus  capital,  as  in  the  South, 
found  its  way  to  Eastern  cities.  With  a  population 
of  nearly  8,000,000  and  foreign  exports  of  more  than 
$'50,000,000,  the  Northwest  still  had  only  $10,425,- 
000  on  deposit  in  her  banks  and  127,000,000  in 
vested  in  banking  enterprises.  Her  per  capita  circu 
lation  was  only  $ 4.  Here  as  in  the  South  the  amount 
of  specie  in  the  banks  was  twice  as  great  in  propor 
tion  to  population  and  the  volume  of  business  trans 
acted  as  in  the  East.  The  debts  of  the  Northwest  to 
the  East  and  to  Europe  cannot  well  be  estimated, 
but  they  were  enormous.  States,  counties,  and  cor 
porations  owed  hundreds  of  millions,  and  when  the 
interest  on  these  obligations  was  paid  at  the  end  of 
each  year,  the  remaining  net  increase  was  small  in 
deed.  The  West  had  been  badly  in  debt  during  the 
Jackson  period ;  it  was  still  in  debt. 

While  the  growing  Northwest  owed  more  to  the  rest 
of  the  world  than  it  was  likely  to  pay  in  half  a  century, 
its  leaders  saw  that  it  must  continue  to  expand  its  area 
and  improve  its  economic  life.  Undoubtedly  the  one 
leader  who  best  understood  the  needs  of  his  region 
was  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  Senator  from  Illinois  and 


PROSPERITY  203 

perpetual  candidate  for  the  office  of  President  of  the 
United  States.  Young,  active,  and  ardently  patriotic, 
Douglas  had  been  among  the  first  to  see  during  the  Polk 
Presidency  that  the  old  Western  policy  of  internal 
improvements  and  freer  lands  for  all  who  might  come 
must  be  changed.  The  West,  even  the  Northwest, 
was  firmly  attached  to  the  Democratic  party  ;  but  the 
center  of  that  great  organization  was  the  South.  The 
leaders  of  that  section  looked  more  and  more  to  free 
trade  as  a  national  policy.  If  they  succeeded,  as  there 
was  every  reason  to  expect  they  would  succeed,  there 
would  be  no  more  easy  money  for  the  building  of 
canals  and  roadways.  Moreover,  the  South  was  now 
jealous  of  the  expanding  Northwest,  and  her  leaders 
were  growing  more  hostile  toward  the  idea  of  free 
lands  for  the  Northwestern  settlers. 

Douglas  and  his  friends  in  both  houses  of  Con 
gress  worked  out  a  new  policy  during  the  years  1845 
to  1850.  It  was  to  induce  the  Federal  Government 
to  give  large  tracts  of  public  land  to  the  Northwestern 
States  on  condition  that  they  be  given  again  by  the 
States  to  railroad  corporations  as  aids  to  the  build 
ing  of  new  lines.  The  roads  would  sell  their  lands 
at  good  prices,  the  Government  would  sell  its  re 
maining  lands  at  high  prices  after  the  building  of  the 
roads,  and  the  farmers  would  cheerfully  pay  these 
higher  prices  if  markets  for  wheat  and  corn  could  be 
created.  The  leaders  of  the  lower  South  were  inter 
ested  in  this  new  American  system,  for  there  was 
government  land  in  their  States  and  they  needed  rail 
roads  quite  as  much  as  the  Northwesterners.  Capi 
talists  of  the  East  and  Europe  would  be  enlisted 


204         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

because  the  great  tracts  of  rich  land  would  be  secur 
ity  for  money  they  might  lend  at  high  rates  to  the 
roads.  Finally,  the  increasing  armies  of  immigrants 
gave  assurance  that  the  railroad  lands  could  be  sold 
easily. 

The  outcome  was  the  building  of  the  Illinois  Cen 
tral,  the  Mobile  and  Ohio,  and  other  shorter  lines  in 
each  of  the  Western  and  Northwestern  States  durin^ 

o 

the  decade  of  1850-60.  The  railroad  lands  sold  as 
high  as  |8  or  $  10  an  acre,  and  the  government  lands 
advanced  in  value  accordingly,  though  the  Federal 
Treasury  did  not  profit  to  the  full  extent  of  these 
promises.  The  growth  and  expansion  of  the  North 
west  described  above  was  due  largely  to  this  policy 
of  Douglas.  Chicago  bankers  loaned  all  the  money 
they  had  and  borrowed  all  they  could  borrow  for  the 
building  of  railroads.  The  thriving  young  city,  always 
the  pet  of  Senator  Douglas,  increased  its  business  in 
marvelous  manner  during  the  decade.  It  soon  dis 
tanced  St.  Louis  in  the  race  for  wealth  and  popula 
tion,  and  before  1854  conceived  of  the  scheme  of 
building  a  great  railway,  long  ago  proposed  by  Asa 
Whitney,  of  Michigan,  to  the  Pacific.  This  road  was 
to  connect  with  the  Illinois  Central  in  Iowa,  thread 
its  way  through  the  Indian  lands  in  Nebraska,  and 
finally  bring  San  Francisco  and  the  Far  East  into 
touch  with  the  commercial  center  of  the  Middle  West. 
It  was  a  magnificent  undertaking,  not  unlike  that  of 
the  Erie  Canal,  which  had  made  New  York  the  Em 
porium  of  the  East ;  it  was  even  more  daring  for  a 
section  already  in  debt  to  the  limit  of  its  ability  to 
pay.  But  these  ambitious  Northwestern  men  and 


PROSPERITY  205 

politicians  had  already  won  the  support  of  the  rail 
way  men  of  New  York  and  Boston,  and  their  agents 
still  borrowed  money  with  ease  in  London  and  Liv 
erpool.  And  with  States  like  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  and 
Iowa  doubling  their  population  each  decade,  and 
hence  increasing  their  land  values  three  or  fourfold, 
even  the  impossible  became  possible.  The  most  am 
bitious  section  of  the  Union  during  the  Pierce  Ad 
ministration  was  the  Northwest,  and  it  need  not 
surprise  us  to  learn  that  Douglas,  her  mouthpiece, 
was  the  most  ambitious  leader  of  his  party. 

As  compared  with  all  former  standards,  the  coun 
try  of  1850-60  was  exceedingly  prosperous.  A  series 
of  good  crop  years,  the  low  tariff  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  free-trade  policy  of  England  stimu 
lated  the  unprecedented  commercial  activity.  The 
financial  system  was  more  stable  than  it  had  ever  been 
before,  and  the  inter-sectional  trade  was  assuming 
proportions  never  dreamed  of  in  the  earlier  days  of 
the  Republic.  The  manufactures  of  the  East,  which 
approximated  $800,000,000  in  value  each  year,  were 
sold  to  the  South  in  exchange  for  bills  on  Liverpool 
or  London,  or  to  the  West  in  return  for  its  grain 
and  other  foodstuffs.  The  banks  and  railroads  brought 
all  sections  closer  together,  especially  the  East  and 
the  West ;  while  the  expanding  merchant  marine 
promised  soon  to  give  the  United  States  the  mastery 
of  international  commerce. 

Thus  the  East  had  learned  to  prosper  without  a 
high  tariff,  and  the  South  was  voting  for  large  sub 
sidies  to  Eastern  shipping.  The  West  had  found  a 
way  to  develop  her  resources  in  spite  of  Southern  and 


206         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Eastern  jealousy,  and  the  laws  of  commerce  were  daily 
weakening  the  influence  of  state  rights  and  sectional 
dislike.  A  new  era  had  begun.  Big  business  interests 
and  great  railway  schemes  had  developed  the  corpo 
ration  in  its  modern  connotation ;  large  harvests  and 
a  most  enterprising  industry  were  producing  the 
capital  for  a  new  economic  era ;  and  all  the  social 
tendencies  seemed  to  be  working  out  a  national  life 
which  was  no  longer  parochial.  It  was  the  business 
of  politics  so  to  guide  and  regulate  the  varying  activi 
ties  of  the  people  that  sectional  hatreds  should  pass 
away  and  that  the  resources  of  the  country  should  not 
be  squandered.  Such  was  the  task  of  Franklin  Pierce, 
the  new  leader,  who  had  not  known  personally  the 
fears  and  dislikes  of  earlier  days.  But  a  country  so  rich 
and  prosperous  as  the  United  States  in  1850-60  had 
other  interests,  a  social  and  intellectual  life  which 
must  engage  our  attention  before  we  take  up  the 
political  evolution  of  the  period. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

James  Ford  Rhodes's  History  of  the  United  Stales,  vols.  I  and  IT, 
already  mentioned,  remains  the  best  treatment  of  the  period  of 
1850-60.  T.  C.  Smith's  Parties  and  Slavery,  in  American  Nation 
series  (1906),  and  McMaster's  History  of  the  United  States,  vol. 
viu,  are  very  valuable.  T.  P.  Kettell's  Southern  Wealth  and  North 
ern  Profits  (New  York,  1860),  is  a  suggestive  study  in  sectionalism 
not  too  well  known  to  scholars.  But  the  Census  Reports  of  1850 
and  1860;  J.  E.  B.  DeBow's  Industrial  Resources  of  the  South  and 
West  (1857);  and  U.S.  Senate  Executive  Documents,  no.  38,  part  1, 
52d  Cong..  1st  Sess.,  supply  the  needful  statistics  on  population, 
crops,  manufactures,  and  finance.  Freeman  Hunt's  Lives  of 
American  Merchants,  2  vols.  (New  York,  1858),  gives  some  inter 
esting  information  about  leading  ante-bellum  merchants  and  manu- 


PROSPERITY  207 

facturers.  And  the  volumes  of  Hunt's  Merchant's  Magazine,  1839- 
60,  DeBovos  Review,  1846-60,  and  the  American  Banker  s  Maga 
zine  for  the  same  period  are  storehouses  of  the  economic  history  of 
the  time,  K.  Coman's  Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 
(1910);  E.  L.  Bogart's  The  Economic  History  of  the  United  States 
(1908);  and  Horace  White's  Money  and  Banking  Illustrated  by 
American  History  (1911),  are  the  best  special  works  in  their 
several  lines. 


CHAPTER  XI 

AMERICAN    CULTURE 

FOUR  fifths  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  of 
1860  lived  in  the  country,  and  it  is  perhaps  fair  to 
say  that  half  of  these  dwelt  in  log  houses  of  one  or 
two  rooms.  Comforts  such  as  most  of  us  enjoy  daily 
were  as  good  as  unknown.  Even  in  the  cities  baths 
were  exceedingly  rare,  while  in  the  country  the  very 
decencies  of  life  were  neglected.  Mosquitoes,  flies, 
and  other  germ-harboring  pests  were  regarded  with 
equanimity,  screens  and  disinfectants  being  used  only 
in  the  best  of  hospitals.  Malaria,  typhoid,  and  other 
diseases  claimed  a  large  toll  upon  life  each  year. 
Physicians  were  less  numerous  than  now  and  their 
art  was  only  in  its  infancy.  Trained  nurses  were  just 
coming  into  their  present  role.  Men  regarded  sick 
ness  as  a  visitation  of  Providence,  and  when  the  yel 
low  fever  epidemics  seized  the  lower  Southern  cities, 
the  losses  and  suffering  were  such  as  the  present  gen 
eration  cannot  appreciate. 

Improvements  in  the  matter  of  dress  since  1830 
were  evident,  but  for  the  workaday  world  shirt 
sleeves,  heavy  brogan  boots  and  shoes,  and  rough 
wool  hats  were,  of  course,  the  rule.  Salt  bacon  and 
"  greens,"  with  corn  bread  and  thin  coffee,  composed 
the  common  diet,  though  milk  and  butter  relieved  the 
monotonous  fare  for  the  farmers.  "  Hog-killing  time  " 
was  always  a  happy  season,  for  fresh  meats  were  then 


AMERICAN   CULTURE  200 

abundant.  Only  in  the  larger  towns  did  the  people 
have  fresh  meats  throughout  the  year.  An  explana 
tion  of  the  enthusiasm  of  ante-bellum  people  for  po 
litical  speaking  is  found  in  the  fact  that  barbecues 
either  preceded  or  followed  the  oratory ;  and  to  a 
man  who  had  lived  for  months  on  fat  bacon  and  corn 
bread  a  fresh  roast  pig  was  a  delight  which  would  en 
able  him  to  endure  long  hours  of  poor  speaking.  But 
in  the  cities  and  towns  there  was,  of  course,  a  better 
life.  Frame  houses,  two  stories  high,  painted  white 
and  adorned  with  green  window  blinds,  were  every 
where  in  good  form,  except  where  men  were  able  to 
build  brick  or  stone  mansions  or  maintain  the  estab 
lishments  of  wealthy  ancestors.  In  the  South  it  was 
still  the  custom  to  guard  the  entrances  to  great  plan 
tation  houses  with  chiseled  lions  or  crouching  grey 
hounds  ;  in  the  East  more  attention  was  paid  to 
flowers  and  shrubbery.  Wealthy  families  of  the  East 
sometimes  maintained  more  than  one  house  servant, 
but  the  greater  number  counted  themselves  eminently 
respectable  with  cook,  maid,  and  house  girl  all  in 
one,  and  the  pay  was  one  or  two  dollars  a  week. 
Liveries  and  silver  plate  persisted  mainly  in  the  very 
exclusive  circles  of  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  in 
Washington,  and  on  the  great  plantations. 

Factory  hands  and  common  laborers  worked  twelve 
hours  a  day  under  circumstances  and  conditions 
hardly  better  than  those  of  1830,  for  labor  unions 
had  only  begun  their  agitation,  and  foreign  immi 
grants  were  always  ready  to  accept  work  without 
asking  any  questions.  One  or  two  States  had  passed 
laws  regulating  hours  of  labor  ;  but  none  had  thought 


210        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

of  the  cost  to  the  race  of  hard  toil  and  long  hours  for 
women  and  children,  and  most  men  regarded  the 
builder  of  a  mill  as  a  public  benefactor  because  he 
furnished  employment  to  just  this  element  of  the 
population.  A  man  who  had  steady  work  on  a  farm 
was  paid  from  ten  to  fifteen  dollars  a  month  with 
board  ;  a  day-laborer  received  a  dollar  a  day  without 
perquisites.  Skilled  laborers  were  paid  two  dollars  a 
day  in  the  South  and  slightly  less  in  the  East.  The 
industrial  belt  continued  to  draw  upon  the  country 
districts  of  the  East,  which,  with  the  continued  mi 
gration  to  the  West,  greatly  impoverished  the  rural 
life  and  resulted  in  many  abandoned  farms.  In  the 
city  housing  conditions  of  the  poor  were  worse  if 
anything  than  they  had  been  thirty  years  before. 
Crowded  tenements,  filthy  streets,  flies,  and  vermin 
abounded.  Under  the  English  common  law  accidents 
in  the  mills  were  matters  of  concern  only  to  the 
employees,  and  the  human  toll  of  the  railways  was 
enormous.  Years  of  toil,  a  worn-out  frame,  a  depend 
ent  old  age,  and  finally  the  potter's  field  was  the 
weary  round  of  life  to  the  millions  of  dependent 
people  who  swarmed  about  the  industrial  centers. 

Under  the  pressure  of  outside  criticism  and  the 
influence  of  religion,  the  lot  of  the  slave  was  mend 
ing,  though  there  was  room  enough  for  improvement. 
From  sun  to  sun  was  always  the  plantation  day,  and 
the  weekly  ration  was  a  peck  of  meal  and  four  pounds 
of  meat  —  salted  "  side  meat "  packed  in  Cincinnati  or 
Chicago.  Each  negro  family  had  a  single-room  cabin, 
where  man,  wife,  and  a  dozen  children  were  tucked 
away  in  the  loft  or  slept  on  the  floor,  though  there 


AMERICAN   CULTURE 

was  usually  a  bed  for  the  parents.  There  was,  how 
ever,  always  plenty  of  fresh  air,  a  big  open  fireplace, 
and  generally  shade  trees  about  the  negro  quarters, 
which  conditions  probably  account  for  the  lower  mor 
tality  rate  in  the  South  than  in  the  East.  Of  clothing 
the  slave  had  only  what  was  absolutely  necessary, 
children  being  limited  to  a  single  garment  which 
reached  slightly  below  the  knees.  Against  accidents 
and  disease  more  precautions  were  taken  by  masters 
of  plantations  than  by  masters  of  mills,  for  the  life 
of  a  negro  man  or  child-bearing  woman  was  equal  to 
twelve  hundred  dollars.  Heavy  ditching  in  malarial 
swamps  was  therefore  done  by  Irishmen,  whose  lives 
were  less  important  to  the  planter.  Physicians  were 
promptly  called  for  the  slaves,  and  women  in  labor 
were  generally  cared  for,  because  a  negro  baby  was 
worth  one  hundred  dollars. 

If  there  was  some  public  concern  for  the  slaves  in 
the  fields  and  some  beginnings  of  legislation  on  the 
conditions  of  employment  in  the  industrial  States, 
there  was  no  thought  for  the  isolated,  lean,  heavy- 
fisted  farmer  of  the  Southern  up-country  or  the 
Western  prairies.  Land  was  still  cheap,  crops  were 
increasing  in  bulk  and  value  every  year.  Nor  did  the 
farmer  desire  the  attentions  of  society,  provided  the 
new  railroads  were  laid  through  his  districts  and  rates 
were  not  too  exorbitant.  He  worked  hard  for  a  few 
months,  then  rested  till  harvest  time,  after  which  he 
hunted  and  fished.  During  the  long  cold  winters  of 
the  Northwest  he  sat  in  his  chimney  corner  or  tended 
his  cattle.  Few  thought  of  fertilizing  their  land  ;  ter 
racing  against  rains  and  floods  was  almost  unknown, 


EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

and  for  most  farmers  plowing  was  done  up  and  down 
the  hills,  which  only  hastened  the  washing-away  proc 
ess  so  characteristic  of  the  Southern  agriculture. 
Very  few  farmers  thought  it  worth  while  to  rotate 
their  crops  when  fresh  lands  were  to  be  had  at  a  few 
dollars  an  acre.  The  area  of  the  United  States  seemed 
limitless,  and  hardly  a  tenth  of  its  arable  land  had 
ever  been  brought  under  cultivation.  The  inventions 
of  1840-50  enabled  the  Western  farmer  to  grow 
larger  crops,  and  harvest  time  was  not  so  burden 
some;  corn-shellers  and  grain-fans  shortened  the 
hours  of  labor  for  the  men.  Sewing-machines  and 
the  revolving  churns  from  the  factories  gave  some 
relief  to  the  women,  whose  round  of  labor,  milking, 
cooking,  cleaning,  washing,  and  attending  children, 
was  still  almost  ceaseless.  Even  the  picnics  and  bar 
becues  offered  little  to  them,  for  they  must  still  pre 
pare  the  great  baskets  of  food  and  serve  their  lords 
and  masters  while  they  deliberated  on  "  bleeding 
Kansas,"  new  railroad  schemes,  or  negro  slavery. 

Whether  the  lot  of  the  landless  and  the  less  tal 
ented  had  improved  since  the  day  of  Jackson  would 
be  hard  to  determine.  If  it  was  easier  to  purchase 
land,  or  if  there  was  an  actual  increase  in  wages,  the 
number  of  the  poorer  class  of  Americans  had  in 
creased  both  actually  and  relatively,  and  thus  com 
petition  operated  to  prevent  improved  housing  and 
a  better  country  life.  Still  the  life  of  the  great  ma 
jority  in  the  United  States  was  less  grinding  than 
that  of  Europeans  of  the  same  class,  and  the  oppor 
tunity  for  a  poor  man  to  rise  in  the  social  and  eco 
nomic  scale  was  distinctly  better.  That  is  what  made 


AMERICAN   CULTURE  213 

America  the  Mecca  of  so  many  thousands  during  the 
decade  of  1850-60.  Yet  illiteracy  and  dependency, 
causes  and  results  of  poverty,  were  almost  appalling. 
Georgia  had  a  population  of  43,684  white  illiterates, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  500,000  blacks;  Massachusetts 
had  46,262  ;  Indiana,  60,943  ;  Pennsylvania,  72,156, 
and  North  Carolina,  68,128.  There  were  101  per 
sons  in  the  jails  of  Georgia  on  June  1,  1860  ;  Vir 
ginia  had  189 ;  Massachusetts,  1161,  and  Illinois, 
485.  In  the  open  life  of  the  South  and  West,  where 
men  could  easily  get  to  the  land,  there  was  little 
crime  and  jails  were  often  empty ;  in  the  industrial 
belt  the  prisons  were  always  occupied.  In  like  man 
ner  and  for  the  same  reasons  Southern  and  Western 
hospitals  for  the  insane  and  homes  for  the  poor  often 
showed  very  small  percentages  of  these  unfortunates. 
Perhaps  the  unrelieved  poverty  of  the  industrial 
workers  and  the  stress  of  uncertainty  in  the  matter 
of  employment  made  the  differences.  Certainly  the 
weight  of  the  old  English  common  law  system,  adopted 
in  all  the  States,  bore  hardly  on  the  dependent 
classes  of  the  East ;  and  the  courts  were  not  loath  to 
send  undefended  men  to  prison.  In  the  South  the 
worker  was  punished  by  his  master  on  the  plantation 
for  all  the  minor  offenses,  and  it  was  only  free  ne 
groes  and  the  poorer  whites  who  were  the  subjects  of 
the  ordinary  social  discipline  and  punishment. 

The  abounding  wealth  and  strenuous  zest  of  Amer 
ican  life  were  creating  just  those  gradations  in  so 
ciety  and  distinctions  of  caste  against  which  consti 
tutions  and  laws  inveighed.  On  the  broad  basis  of 
African  slavery  the  enterprising  Southerner  had 


214        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

built  and  was  now  perfecting  a  social  class  hardly 
inferior  to  the  aristocracies  of  Europe.  Soft  hands 
aiid  exclusive  manners  were  there  as  elsewhere  in  the 
world  the  evidences  of  a  gentle  life  ;  sturdy  personal 
independence  and  rough  ways,  here  as  in  England, 
were  the  marks  of  middle-class  training,  through 
which  recruits  to  the  privileged  order  had  generally 
come.  Openly  and  on  all  proper  occasions  the  South 
erners  announced  the  break-down  of  democracy  and 
the  benefits  of  a  cultured  elite ;  the  few  thousand 
"  first  families,"  who  lived  upon  the  incomes  of  plan 
tations,  spent  their  winters  in  New  Orleans,  their 
springs  in  Charleston,  and  their  summers  at  the  Vir 
ginia  springs.  Among  these,  tutors  were  engaged  to 
train  children,  and  every  man  had  his  valet,  every 
lady  her  maid.  Travel  in  Europe,  sojourns  at  New 
port  and  Saratoga,  and  acquaintance  with  the  best 
hotels  of  Philadelphia  and  New  York  were  common 
to  this  group  of  most  attractive  people.  When  Con 
gress  was  in  session,  they  dominated  the  social  life 
of  the  capital,  gave  elaborate  balls,  and  brought 
effective  pressure  to  bear  upon  aspiring  Eastern  and 
Western  public  leaders.  Douglas-had  married  a  beau 
tiful  North  Carolina  heiress,  the  wife  of  Jefferson 
Davis  was  the  granddaughter  of  a  governor  of  New 
Jersey,  and  even  William  H.  Seward  was  strongly 
influenced  by  the  graces  of  his  planter  friends.  Sena 
tors,  representatives,  and  judges  of  the  federal  courts 
owned  estates  in  the  lower  South  which  yielded  in 
comes  ofttimes  greater  than  their  official  salaries. 
The  very  flower  and  beauty  of  the  land  were  South 
ern  gentlemen  like  Robert  E.  Lee  and  Wade  Hamp- 


AMERICAN   CULTURE  215 

ton,  or  ladies  like  the  sprightly  Mrs.  Chestnut  or  the 
genial  Mrs.  Pryor. 

Nor  did  the  commercial  and  industrial  life  of  the 
East  fail  to  produce  a  similar  fruit.  If  the  Eastern 
gentleman  were  less  dependent  on  his  valet  and  less 
averse  to  work  with  his  hands,  he  was  nevertheless 
a  gentleman,  and  the  chasm  between  him  and  the 
toiler  in  the  mills  was  difficult  to  bridge.  There  was 
nowhere  in  the  United  States  a  more  exclusive  so 
ciety  than  that  in  which  the  Danas  and  the  Win- 
throps  of  Boston  moved.  And  the  New  England  elite 
were  never  so  happy  as  when  they  could  run  off  to 
England  and  frequent  the  dinners  and  receptions  of 
the  British  aristocracy;  both  the  manners  and  the 
ideals  of  the  Eastern  upper  class  resembled  strikingly 
those  of  the  "  best  people  "  of  Old  England.  It  was 
all  in  striking  contrast  to  the  ideals  of  the  Puritans 
of  old  times,  but  it  was  natural.  In  New  England,  as 
in  the  South,  democracy  was  flouted  and  a  privileged 
position  greatly  prized.  The  old  American  "  equality  " 
was  only  skin  deep,  as  any  one  would  have  recog 
nized  if  he  had  attempted  familiarities  with  either 
the  Eastern  or  the  Southern  social  leaders.  The  dif 
ference  was  that  the  one  group  lived  in  cities  when 
they  were  at  home,  and  the  other  in  the  country. 

Nor  was  this  American  social  life  scorned  by  Eu 
ropean  noblemen.  Charles  Sumner  was  always  wel 
come  in  the  greatest  houses  of  London,  and  the 
Slidells  and  the  Masons  of  the  South  received  no 
less  flattering  attentions  from  their  European  eco 
nomic  and  social  kinsmen.  One  of  Bismarck's  most 
intimate  friends  was  John  L.  Motley,  and  the  friend- 


216         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

ship  had  been  contracted  long  before  Motley  had 
won  fame  as  a  historian.  American  heiresses  had 
already  found  suitors  among  the  British  nobility. 
The  kinship  of  Eastern  social  life  with  that  of  Europe 
was  recognized,  and  the  relations  of  the  well-to-do  at 
the  North  with  the  wealthy  of  the  South  were  many 
and  intimate.  Thus  in  America  as  elsewhere  talent, 
birth,  and  money  produced  social  strata,  and  before 
1860  the  distinctions  of  class  were  only  less  sharply 
drawn  here  than  in  the  older  countries  of  the  world. 
But,  next  to  the  very  necessaries  of  life,  religion 
was  the  most  important  subject  to  Americans  of  1860. 
The  Puritan  spirit,  while  losing  some  of  its  hold  in 
New  England,  had  captured  the  people  of  the  rest 
of  the  country.  Except  as  to  the  Catholics  and  the 
Episcopalians,  all  Americans  were  born,  or  thought 
themselves  born,  utterly  depraved  and  weighted  down 
with  the  sin  of  Adam  and  Eve,  their  "  first  parents," 
from  which  burden  the  only  way  of  escape  was  through 
prayer  and  agony  of  soul.  Even  this  prospect  was 
denied  to  many,  for  some  influential  religious  teach 
ers  urged  that  God  could  not  hear  the  supplications 
of  sinners.  These  must  await  the  call  of  Heaven, 
and  if  this  failed,  they  were  bound  for  the  "  lake  of 
fire,"  whence  there  was  no  return.  The  intelligent 
and  well-informed  spoke  with  all  seriousness  of  "  get 
ting  religion,"  and  in  the  vast  country  districts  the 
most  suitable  season  for  this  was  the  hot  July  and 
August  days.  Revivals  among  nearly  all  the  leading 
denominations  were  held  at  this  time  in  the  churches 
or  under  widespread  arbors  made  from  the  branches 
of  trees.  The  preaching  and  the  singing  were  not 


AMERICAN   CULTURE  217 

unlike  that  which  brought  the  Germans  of  the  eighth 
century  to  the  Roman  communion.  The  other  worlds 
were  just  two:  one  the  city  of  the  golden  gates  and 
pearly  streets,  the  other  the  bottomless  pit  of  liquid 
fire  into  which  Satan  would  surely  plunge  all  who 
failed  to  make  their  peace  with  God  in  this  life.  The 
old  Puritan  lines  formerly  learned  by  every  child  — 

"  God's  vengeance  feeds  the  flame 
With  piles  of  wood  and  brimstone  flood, 
That  none  can  quencli  the  same"  — 

represented  to  most  people  of  the  decade  just  preced 
ing  the  Civil  War  all  they  said.  Both  old  men  and 
young  children  dreamed  of  the  awful  retribution 
which  awaited  them  in  the  other  world. 

And  there  was  a  fiery  zeal  in  the  work  of  saving 
men's  souls  from  the  wrath  to  come  which  showed 
that  it  was  no  figurative  faith  which  moved  the  preach 
ers  and  their  co-workers.  A  song  sung  by  all  ran 
in  one  of  its  favorite  stanzas :  — 

"Must  I  be  carried  to  the  skies 

On  flow'ry  beds  of  ease, 
While  others  fought  to  win  the  prize 
And  sailed  through  bloody  seas  ?  " 

Excitement  naturally  overcame  many,  and  they  rushed 
forward  to  the  mourner's  benches  in  front  of  the  altar 
and  cried  out  for  mercy,  or  silently  prayed  for  days 
and  weeks  till  the  light  "  broke  upon  them  "  and  they 
went  forth  shouting  for  joy.  These  then  became  ex- 
horters,  and  moved  among  their  friends  in  the  con 
gregation,  begging  them  to  yield  their  "proud  and 
haughty  spirits"  ere  it  should  be  too  late.  At  times 
scores  of  penitents  would  be  on  their  knees  in  the 


218         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

spaces  about  the  altar,  others  would  be  "  laboring  " 
with  the  sinners  not  yet  stricken,  and  still  others 
thanking  God  in  loud  voices  for  their  delivery  from 
sin  and  Satan,  whom  all  regarded  as  an  active  demon 
always  seeking  whom  he  might  destroy. 

In  the  South  the  deism  which  had  influenced  the 
generation  led  by  Washington  and  Jefferson  had  given 
way  to  the  stern  faith  of  the  Calvinists,  for  whether 
one  were  Presbyterian,  Baptist,  Methodist,  or  Camp- 
bellite,  the  essentials  of  his  religion  were  the  same. 
Wealthy  planters,  small  farmers,  and  negro  slaves 
sought  the  salvation  of  their  souls  in  the  same 
churches  and  under  the  same  preachers.  In  fact  it 
was  common  for  men  to  be  told  by  their  pastors  that 
unless  they  were  willing  to  sit  down  in  heaven  by 
the  side  of  the  "poor  slave"  they  could  not  be  saved, 
and  the  slave  often  begged  his  master  to  accept  the 
terms  of  salvation.  A  few  great  planters  who  were  not 
touched  by  the  religious  fervor  of  the  time  held  aloof, 
and  the  poorer  whites  and  the  slaves  came  to  accept 
the  view  that  these  were  the  rich  men  who  could  not 
be  saved,  and  commonly  said  hell  was  their  unavoida 
ble  portion. 

In  the  East,  save  in  the  Unitarian  and  Episco 
palian  churches,  there  was  the  same  religious  realism. 
In  the  great  revivals  of  1857  earnest  men  and  great 
congregations  prayed  aloud  that  God  might  convert 
the  heretical  Theodore  Parker,  or  that,  if  he  were 
not  a  subject  of  grace,  as  many  believed  he  was  not, 
he  might  be  taken  from  this  world,  where  he  was 
doing  infinite  mischief.  Of  course  he  was  to  be  con 
signed  immediately  to  the  "  fiery  furnace  below." 


AMERICAN   CULTURE  219 

And  the  greatest  of  American  preachers,  Henry 
Ward  Beecher,  in  the  same  revival,  gathered  about 
him  the  hard-headed  business  men  of  New  York  City 
and  together  they  prayed  that  wicked  playwrights 
and  worldly-minded  theater-goers  might  be  brought 
to  a  realizing  sense  of  the  shame  of  their  conduct, 
and  that  the  houses  of  their  frivolous  vice  might  be 
converted  into  temples  of  Christian  worship.  Again, 
those  who  would  not  heed  the  solemn  warnings  of 
the  pulpit  were  "  given  up,"  and  the  Heavenly  Father 
was  asked  to  remove  them  "hence." 

The  influence  of  this  sense  of  the  awfulness  of  the 
after  life  to  those  who  might  not  be  saved  was  far- 
reaching.  The  farmer,  driven  by  the  hard  necessity 
of  making  a  living  for  himself  and  family  to  remain 
away  from  church,  meditated  sorrowfully  as  he  fol 
lowed  his  plow,  and  often  at  the  end  of  his  furrow 
fell  upon  his  knees  and  besought  the  Creator  to  save 
his  undying  soul  and  spare  him  the  everlasting  tor 
ture  of  the  damned.  A  popular  little  gift  book,  pub 
lished  by  the  American  Tract  Society  of  New  York, 
was  entitled  Passing  Over  Jordan,  and  on  an  early 
page  we  find  the  following  typical  lines :  — 

"  My  thoughts  on  awful  subjects  roll, 

Damnation  and  the  dead  : 
What  horrors  seize  my, guilty  soul 
Upon  a  dying  bed." 

And  a  young  woman  who  received  this  as  a  New 
Year's  present  was  a  perfectly  normal  girl  of  Cin 
cinnati  and  the  daughter  of  a  prominent  family  there. 
What  was  happening  in  the  United  States  during 
the  thirty  years  we  are  studying  was  the  saving  of 


220        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

the  people  from  the  rough  and  often  coarse  and  sen 
sual  life  of  the  frontier.  Under  conditions  such  as 
have  been  described  the  influence  and  power  of  the 
preacher  in  young  America  were  extraordinary.  And 
the  clergy  deserved  the  authority  they  exercised. 
Never  before  the  war  was  a  Methodist  bishop  even 
charged  with  immoral  conduct.  The  standards  of  the 
Baptists  and  Presbyterians  were  equally  high.  The 
preachers  who  called  men  to  repentance  were  beyond 
question  of  the  highest  character.  Earnest,  sincere, 
overwhelmed  with  the  sense  of  their  responsibility, 
they  "  preached  the  Word  with  power,"  and  the  Word 
was  the  Bible  which  all  believed  implicitly  from  cover 
to  cover.  It  was  not  clear  to  preacher  or  congrega 
tion  how  God  spoke  to  man  first  in  the  Hebrew  of 
the  Old  Testament,  then  in  the  Greek  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  finally  in  the  Authorized  Version  of 
James  I.  But  it  mattered  not ;  the  Bible  was  in 
spired  by  the  Heavenly  Father,  for  it  was  so  stated 
in  Revelation,  and  a  curse  was  held  up  for  him  who 
denied  its  truth  or  so  much  as  removed  one  syllable 
or  added  a  line.  It  was  the  authority  of  the  Bible  as 
preached  by  Martin  Luther  and  John  Calvin,  and  the 
interpreters  of  the  Sacred  Book  were  the  clergy,  not 
the  Pope  or  some  distant  sacerdotal  see. 

Just  how  many  people  were  members  of  the 
churches  it  would  be  very  difficult  accurately  to  de 
termine.  The  Methodists  of  the  South  numbered 
nearly  a  million  in  1860,  those  of  the  North  were 
equally  strong.  The  Baptists,  North,  South,  and 
West,  were  nearly  as  numerous.  The  Presbyterians, 
Congregational  ists,  and  Christians  (Campbellites) 


AMERICAN   CULTURE 

had  each  some  hundreds  of  thousands  of  members. 
All  the  churches,  including  Catholics,  offered  seat 
ing  accommodations  for  about  20,000,000  of  the 
31,000,000  people  of  the  country;  which  is  a  large 
proportion.  And  from  the  census  returns,  it  seems 
that  church  accommodations  were  always  best  and 
most  plentiful  in  the  older  communities,  the  East 
having  almost  as  many  pews  as  there  were  people. 
The  South  could  seat  6,500,000  worshipers,  — that  is, 
a  little  more  than  half  of  the  population  ;  the  North 
west  was  able  to  accommodate  only  about  4,000,000. 
With  Protestant  churches  so  powerful  and  their 
ministers  so  influential,  it  is  only  natural  that  the 
religious  teachings  of  the  time  should  have  told  in 
politics  and  the  sectional  struggle.  The  Southerners 
believed  almost  implicitly  in  the  claim  of  their  great 
Presbyterian  preacher,  B.  M.  Palmer,  when  he  de 
clared  in  1860  :  "  In  this  great  struggle,  we  defend 
the  cause  of  God  and  religion ;  it  is  our  solemn  duty 
to  ourselves,  to  our  slaves,  to  the  world,  and  to  Al 
mighty  God  to  preserve  and  transmit  our  existing 
system  of  domestic  servitude,  with  the  right,  unchal 
lenged  by  man,  to  go  and  root  itself  wherever  Provi 
dence  and  Nature  may  carry  it."  Methodists,  Bap 
tists,  Catholics,  and  all  other  important  bodies  of 
Christians  in  the  South  held  and  taught  the  same 
doctrine.  In  the  Northwest  there  was  some  hesitation 
about  going  so  far,  but  the  majority  undoubtedly 
believed  with  Dr.  Nathan  L.  Rice,  of  Chicago,  that 
slavery  was  divinely  established  and  not  to  be  dis 
turbed  by  man.  In  the  East  some  of  the  Unitarians 
taught  abolition  and  supported  Garrison  and  Phillips ; 


222        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

more  of  the  Congregationalists  were  of  the  same 
mind.  But  in  Boston,  New  York,  and  Philadelphia 
the  greater  clergy  had  come  to  regret  the  former 
tendency  to  denounce  slavery,  and  they  were  inclined 
to  preach  the  doctrine  that  Providence  had  estab 
lished  slavery  and  that  it  should  be  left  to  Provi 
dence  to  remove  it  in  due  time.  Only  in  the  rural 
districts  of  the  East,  where  the  old  New  England 
spirit  still  flourished,  was  slavery  declared  to  be  "  the 
awful  curse."  And  here  it  was  that  the  old  sectional 
hatred  was  strongest.  The  churches  and  the  clergy 
with  all  their  influence  had  thus  given  up  the  prob 
lem  of  slavery,  and  their  counsel  and  advice  were  to 
maintain  the  Union  and  to  put  down  all  sectional 
conflict.  Nationalism  with  the  South  dominant  was 
the  meaning  of  this ;  nor  do  the  election  returns  of 
1852  and  1856  make  a  different  showing. 

Where  religious  influences  were  so  potent,  it  was 
natural  that  the  clergy  should  exert  themselves  for 
the  education  of  the  young.  Yale  College  was  a 
"  school  of  the  prophets  "  which  sent  out  to  the  West 
the  young  preachers  and  teachers  so  much  needed  if 
Congregationalism  was  to  hold  its  own  in  that  region. 
Princeton  was  Presbyterian  headquarters  for  both 
West  and  South,  and  few  institutions  have  ever  ex 
erted  a  greater  civilizing  force  in  a  new  nation  than 
that  school  of  sternest  theology.  Dr.  Charles  Hodge 
was  there  a  tower  of  orthodox  and  conservative 
strength  which  could  be  seen  from  afar.  In  numer 
ous  other  institutions  the  Methodists,  Baptists,  Con 
gregationalists,  Friends,  and  Campbellites  trained 
their  ministers  and  urged  upon  all  the  importance  of 


AMERICAN   CULTURE  223 

education.  At  the  University  of  Virginia  there  were 
chaplains  maintained  by  the  different  denominations 
for  the  religious  instruction  of  the  students.  The 
Methodists  of  Michigan  regularly  appointed  a  pro 
fessor  to  the  state  university  for  the  same  purpose. 
Other  state  universities,  like  those  of  Indiana  and 
North  Carolina,  were  brought  under  practical  de 
nominational  control  through  the  zealous  activity  of 
Presbyterian  presidents. 

The  education  of  the  little  children  was,  however, 
too  much  for  the  most  zealous  of  religious  organiza 
tions.  Jefferson  had  set  in  motion  influences  which 
had  greatly  strengthened  the  cause  of  popular  edu 
cation  in  the  South  and  West.  But  nowhere  did  the 
States  prepare  fully  for  the  work.  In  the  Northwest 
the  public  school  lands  were  wasted  by  thoughtless  or 
venal  politicians,  and  in  the  older  South  the  label, 
"  school  for  the  children  of  the  poor,"  went  far  to 
defeat  all  efforts  made  by  legislatures  on  behalf  of 
good  public  school  systems.  In  the  period  of  1840-50 
Horace  Mann  revived  the  New  England  interest  in 
education  and  laid  the  foundations  for  the  school  sys 
tems  of  to-day.  Even  so  ardent  a  Southerner  as  Wil 
liam  L.  Yancey,  of  Alabama,  became  a  disciple  of  the 
New  England  reformer,  and  tried  to  do  a  similar 
work  in  his  State.  In  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  the  other 
Western  States  educational  reforms  followed.  There 
were  in  consequence  about  5,000,000  children  in 
school  in  the  year  1860.  Of  these  the  South  had 
796,000,  the  Northwest,  exclusive  of  California, 
2,005,196,  and  the  East,  2,011,826 ;  which  shows  that 
Southern  public  opinion  had  not  yet  been  aroused  to 


EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

the  importance  of  the  subject.  But  the  figures  for 
illiteracy,  already  given,  do  not  show  a  worse  con 
dition  among  the  whites  of  the  South  than  is  shown 
in  the  Northwestern  States. 

If  the  returns  for  college  education  be  taken,  the 
balance  among  the  sections  is  fairly  reestablished. 
There  were  25,882  college  students  in  the  South  in 
1860,  and  this  does  not  take  into  account  the  large 
number  of  Southern  students  in  Eastern  institutions 
like  Princeton  and  Harvard.  There  were  at  the  same 
time  16,959  college  students  in  the  Northwest,  and 
10,449  in  the  East. 

Between  education  and  the  attainments  of  science 
and  invention  there  is  some  connection,  though  gen 
ius  often  defies  all  conventional  methods  of  instruc 
tion.  In  addition  to  the  epoch-making  inventions  of 
McCormick  and  his  competitors,  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse 
had  perfected  his  electric  telegraph,  which  was  in 
operation  in  most  of  the  countries  of  Europe  before 
1860.  Richard  M.  Hoe  revolutionized  newspaper 
publishing  in  the  late  forties  by  his  rotary  printing- 
press,  which  put  out  thousands  of  copies  of  a  paper 
in  an  hour.  Nor  was  Elias  Howe's  sewing-machine 
any  less  of  a  wonder  when  it  came  into  use  about 
1850.  Draper  and  Morse's  new  photography,  Thur- 
ber's  typewriter,  Woodruff's  sleeping-car,  and  many 
other  marvelous  contrivances  of  the  same  period 
showed  the  fertility  of  the  American  inventive  genius. 

In  scientific  research  the  United  States  could  not 
present  so  many  evidences  of  her  success,  though  in 
1860  Alexander  Dallas  Bache,  the  head  of  the  Coast 
Survey,  was  counted  one  of  the  leading  scientists  of 


AMERICAN   CULTURE  225 

his  time,  and  Louis  Agassiz,  the  Swiss-American 
naturalist,  was  teaching  now  in  Charleston,  now  in 
the  Lawrence  Scientific  School  at  Harvard,  and  be 
ginning  the  great  work,  Contributions  to  the  Natural 
History  of  the  United  States,  which  his  son,  Alex 
ander,  was  to  complete.  Joseph  Henry,  the  first  head 
of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  was  equally  well 
known,  and  he  and  Professor  Bache  were  the  back 
bones  of  the  American  National  Academy  of  Science, 
just  beginning  its  beneficent  work.  Silliman,  of  Yale, 
and  Mitchell,  of  the  University  of  North  Carolina, 
were  the  best-known  geologists. 

Nor  was  art  degenerating  in  this  period  of  great 
prosperity.  Hiram  Powers,  of  Cincinnati,  the  ablest 
sculptor  of  his  country,  was  greatly  hurt  because 
Congress  refused  him  the  contract  for  the  decorative 
work  on  the  magnificent  Capitol  in  Washington,  at 
last  nearing  completion.  His  aspirations  were  not 
unreasonable,  for  his  Greek  Slave,  a  beautiful  work 
in  marble,  had  captured  the  imagination  of  both 
American  and  foreign  critics  in  1851.  Still,  Thomas 
Crawford,  his  successful  competitor,  was  a  sculptor 
of  real  gifts,  as  one  may  see  in  his  statues  of  Jeffer 
son  and  Patrick  Henry  in  Richmond.  The  work  of 
Allston,  Sully,  and  De  Veaux,  the  painters,  was  being 
improved  upon  by  Chester  Harding,  Eastman  Johnson, 
and  William  Morris  Hunt,  all  influenced,  however, 
by  Turner  of  England,  the  Diisseldorf  (Germany) 
and  Barbizon  (France)  schools.  There  were  now 
many  wealthy  business  men  in  the  country,  and  thus 
artists  had  a  fair  chance  of  a  livelihood  while  their 
ideals  and  technique  were  developing.  In  Boston, 


226         EXPANSION  AND   CONFLICT 

New  York,  and  Philadelphia  were  the  beginnings  of 
the  museums  which  were  a  few  years  later  to  become 
schools  of  art  of  no  mean  importance. 

But  the  flower  of  American  culture  was  its  litera 
ture.  To  be  sure  Edgar  Allan  Poe,  whose  Raven  and 
short  stories  were  ere  long  to  give  him  the  first  rank 
among  all  American  men  of  letters,  had  been  suffered 
to  starve  in  the  midst  of  New  York's  millions  in  1849, 
and  Hawthorne  found  it  very  difficult  to  find  the 
means  of  a  meager  livelihood  in  Massachusetts.  If 
the  Raven  and  the  Scarlet  Letter  were  born  unwel 
come,  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  was  making  a  living 
as  author  and  sage  of  his  generation,  and  there  were 
others  of  the  Transcendentalists  —  Thoreau,  the 
woodland  poet,  Margaret  Fuller,  the  woman  knight- 
errant,  recently  drowned  at  sea,  and  Amos  Bronson 
Alcott  —  whose  writings  appeared  in  standard  edi 
tions  and  who  lived  by  their  pens.  Henry  Wadsworth 
Longfellow,  a  professor  at  Harvard  till  1854,  though 
savagely  criticized  by  Poe  and  Margaret  Fuller,  had 
won  the  American  heart  in  his  Village  Blacksmith 
and  Evangeline.  He  scored  his  greatest  triumph  in 
Miles  Standish  in  1858.  And  another  Harvard 
professor,  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  was  just  coming 
into  a  national  reputation  in  1860  by  his  Autocrat 
of  the  Breakfast  Table  and  other  similar  writings. 

A  more  radical  poet  was  John  Greenleaf  Whittier, 
contributor  to  the  National  Era,  a  radical  anti-slavery 
journal  which  first  gave  publicity  to  Mrs.  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe's  famous  Uncle  Toms  Cabin.  Whit- 
tier's  Ichabod,  which  appeared  in  1850,  and  is  already 
quoted  in  these  pages,  gave  its  author  a  devoted 


AMERICAN   CULTURE  227 

following  among  the  radicals  and  hastened  Webster 
to  his  grave.  Mrs.  Stowe's  work  was  perhaps  the 
most  influential  book  ever  written  by  an  American, 
though  it  hardly  ranks  as  literature.  Of  a  similarly 
intense  nature  was  James  Russell  Lowell,  whose  Big- 
low  Papers  of  1846  to  1857  unmercifully  lampooned 
the  party  which  waged  the  war  on  Mexico  and  ridi 
culed  the  leaders  of  the  South  and  West.  Succeed 
ing  Longfellow  at  Harvard,  Lowell  helped  to  es 
tablish  in  1857  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  which  still 
remains  the  best  of  American  magazines. 

There  was  nowhere  else  in  the  country  such  a 
school  of  literary  men  as  this  of  New  England, 
though  in  Charleston  William  Gilmore  Simms  was 
still  publishing  historical  novels,  espousing  the  cause 
of  Southern  literature  in  Russell's  Magazine,  and 
stimulating  the  ambitions  of  young  men.  One  of  his 
pupils,  Henry  Timrod,  whose  At  Magnolia  Cemetery 
is  likely  to  prove  immortal,  was  worthy  to  be  com 
pared  with  Poe  ;  and  another,  Paul  Hamilton  Hayne, 
certainly  deserved  a  higher  rank  and  a  better  for 
tune  than  either  of  these  struggling  poets  has  been 
accorded.  But  perhaps  the  most  original  writings  of 
the  time  were  those  of  a  certain  group  of  obscure 
men  in  Georgia  and  the  lower  South.  A.  B.  Long- 
street,  the  author  of  Georgia  Scenes,  William  Tap- 
pan  Thompson,  of  Major  Jones's  Courtship,  and 
Joseph  B.  Baldwin,  of  Flush  Times  in  Alabama  and 
Mississippi,  struck  a  rich  vein  of  ludicrous  humor 
which  Mark  Twain  worked  out  after  the  war. 

In  Richmond  the  Southern  Literary  Messenger 
was  still  the  clearing-house  for  Southern  writers,  and 


228         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

De  Bow's  Review  was  eminent  in  the  field  of  social 
and  economic  studies.  New  York  City  had,  however, 
become  the  Mecca  of  the  men  who  had  manuscripts 
to  submit.  There  the  Harper  Brothers  published 
their  Harper's  Magazine,  which  went  to  150,000 
subscribers,  we  are  told,  each  month,  and  the  Knick 
erbocker  Magazine,  distinguished  by  the  contribu 
tions  of  Washington  Irving,  the  Nestor  of  American 
writers,  tried  to  keep  pace.  Both  the  Harpers  and 
the  Putnams  did  an  enormous  business  in  books  of 
all  kinds,  now  that  so  many  Americans  had  grown 
rich.  Walter  Scott's  novels  were  imported  for  the 
South  in  carload  lots,  while  Dickens's  numberless 
volumes  found  ready  sale  in  the  East,  thus  show 
ing  the  different  tastes  of  the  sections. 

o 

And  the  historians  had  increased  their  vogue  with 
a  people  just  beginning  to  realize  that  they  had  an 
cestors  and  taking  a  becoming  pride  in  their  early 
history.  Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States 
was  sold  in  all  sections  in  a  way  that  would  astound 
present-day  historians.  Richard  Hildreth,  a  sturdy 
partisan,  added  his  six  volumes  to  Bancroft's  in 
1849-54  by  way  of  antidote  ;  and  George  Tucker, 
of  the  University  of  Virginia,  still  further  "  cor 
rected  "  the  history  of  his  country,  the  better  to  suit 
the  tastes  of  Southerners.  John  L.  Motley  published 
his  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic  in  1856  at  his  own 
expense,  and  suddenly  found  himself  one  of  the 
foremost  historians  of  his  time,  his  work  being 
quickly  translated  into  all  the  important  languages 
of  Europe.  William  H.  Prescott,  an  older  man  and 
a  greater  historian,  already  well  known  for  his  Reign 


AMERICAN    CULTURE  229 

of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  gave  to  the  printer  his 
Reign  of  Philip  II  in  1855-58,  and  easily  main 
tained  his  supremacy  in  the  field  of  history. 

It  was  an  aspiring  generation  that  produced  Poe, 
Hawthorne,  Lowell,  and  the  rest,  and  if  one  con 
siders  the  character  of  American  culture,  its  lack  of 
unity,  and  the  still  youthful  nature  of  its  people,  it 
is  easy  to  understand  the  pride  in  its  budding  art 
and  maturer  literature,  the  sensitiveness  to  foreign 
criticism,  the  provincialism  which  demands  attention 
and  a  "place  in  the  sun."  Carlyle's  scorn  and  Ma- 
caulay's  contempt  were  indeed  as  irritating  as  they 
were  unjust,  for  America  had  gone  a  long  way  since 
the  rough  backwoodsman,  Andrew  Jackson,  came  to 
the  Presidency  by  almost  unanimous  consent  in  1829. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

James  Ford  Rhodes  in  his  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i, 
chap,  iv,  gives  an  account  of  social  conditions  in  the  South  just  prior 
to  the  war  and,  in  vol.  in,  chap,  xn,  there  is  a  similar  picture  of  con 
ditions  in  the  North.  McMaster's  last  volume  describes  the  life 
of  the  people  for  this  period.  But  I  have  found  most  valuable  in 
formation  in  works  of  travel  like  F.  L.  Olmsted's  A  Journey  in  the 
Seaboard  Slave  States  (1856)  and  A  Journey  Through  the  Back 
Country  (1863),  W.  H.  Russell's  My  Diary  North  and  South  (1863), 
Sir  Charles  Lyell's  A  Second  Visit  to  the  United  States  (1849), 
Peter  Cartwright's  Autobiography  (1856),  and  James  Dixon's 
Personal  Narrative  (1849);  and  in  John  Weiss's  Life  and  Corre 
spondence  of  Theodore  Parker  (1864) ;  Beecher  and  Scoville's  Biog 
raphy  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher  (1888);  W.  E.  Hatcher's  Life  of  J.  B. 
Jeter  (1887);  T.  C.  Johnson's  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Benjamin 
Morgan  Palmer  (1906);  and  the  valuable  American  Church  History 
series  (1893-97).  On  American  sculpture  Lorado  Taft's  American 
Sculpture  (1903),  and  Charles  H.  Caffin's  American  Masters  of 
Sculpture  (1903),  are  useful  and  discriminating.  Caffin  has  also 
written  The  Story  of  American  Painting  (1807),  which  is  perhaps 


230         EXPANSION   AND   CONFLICT 

the  best  short  account  of  the  subject.  For  a  good  view  of  the  liter 
ary  and  publishing  interests  of  1860,  W.  P.  Trent's  A  History  of 
American  Literature  (1903)  is  most  valuable,  and  W.  B.  Cairns's 
A  History  of  American  Literature  (1912)  is  likewise  important. 
George  H.  Putnam's  George  Palmer  Putnam:  A  Memoir  (1912)  and 
J.  H.  Harper's  The  House  of  Harper  (1912)  give  important  in 
formation  about  the  rise  of  the  publishing  houses.  Of  course  De 
Bow's  Review,  Resources  of  the  South  and  West,  and  the  Reports 
of  the  Census  for  1850  and  1860  are  indispensable. 


CHAPTER  XII 

STEPHEN   A.    DOUGLAS 

IF  the  two  preceding  chapters  have  shown  that  the 
larger  social  and  economic  interests  tended  strongly 
toward  the  elimination  of  sectional  hostility,  political 
conditions  and  party  vows  gave  even  stronger  assur 
ances  that  there  should  be  no  more  conflicts  like  those 
of  1833  and  1850.  Yet  there  was  one  section  of  the*' 
country  which  was  a  sort  of  storm  center,  the  North 
west.  There  a  wide  expanse  of  rich  lands  held  by 
Indians,  a  rapidly  increasing  population,  and  great 
annual  harvests  of  wheat  and  corn,  selling  at  high 
prices,  created  a  condition  not  unlike  that  of  the 
lower  South  when  Jackson  became  President.  Re 
moval  of  the  Indians  from  the  fertile  areas  of  the 
Nebraska  country,  the  creation  of  new  Territories, 
and  the  building  of  railroads  connecting  the  wheat 
and  corn  areas  with  Chicago  and  the  Eastern  markets 
were  the  demands  of  the  Northwest  in  1853,  and  a 
really  great  party  leader  would  have  seen  the  problem 
and  his  duty. 

But  Pierce  was  not  a  great  leader.  In  the  make 
up  of  his  Cabinet  he  chose  William  L.  Marcy,  of 
New  York,  for  Secretary  of  State,  James  Campbell, 
of  Pennsylvania,  for  Postmaster-General,  and  Caleb 
Cushing,  of  Massachusetts,  for  Attorney-General, 
all  of  whom  were  close  political  allies  of  the  South. 
Jefferson  Davis,  of  Mississippi,  became  Secretary  of 


232         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

War,  and  James  C.  Dobbin,  of  North  Carolina,  Sec 
retary  of  the  Navy.  Both  of  these  were  extreme  pro- 
slavery  men.  From  the  West,  James  Guthrie,  of 
Kentucky,  and  Robert  McClelland,  of  Michigan, 
were  taken  into  the  President's  Council,  the  one  to 
be  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  the  other  the  head 
of  the  Department  of  the  Interior.  Although  Doug 
las  had  been  the  strongest  candidate  for  the  nomina 
tion  for  the  Presidency  before  the  recent  Democratic 
Convention,  neither  he  nor  any  of  his  friends  was 
selected.  Nor  did  it  seem  wise  to  those  who  were 
then  shaping  the  destinies  of  the  country  to  concili 
ate  the  still  powerful  anti-slavery  element  of  the 
East. 

Looking  backwards  the  new  Administration  found 
three  lines  of  procedure  open  to  it,  all  suggested  by 
President  Polk  in  his  later  messages  to  Congress. 
One  of  these  was  the  closer  attachment  of  California 
to  the  rest  of  the  country,  another  was  the  purchase 
of  Cuba  as  a  makeweight  to  the  growing  Northwest, 
and  the  third  was  the  rapid  expansion  of  American 
commerce  by  federal  subsidies  to  shipping  and  the 
opening  of  new  channels  of  trade. 

To  carry  into  effect  the  first  of  these,  James 
Gadsden,  an  able  railroad  president  of  South  Caro 
lina,  was  sent  to  Mexico  to  purchase  a  large  strip  of 
land  lying  along  the  southern  border  of  New  Mexico 
and  thus  make  easy  the  building  of  a  national  rail 
way  from  Memphis  to  San  Francisco,  for  the  lowest 
passes  over  the  Rocky  Mountains  were  in  this  region. 
Gadsden  returned  in  the  autumn  successful.  For 
110,000,000  he  had  secured  50,000  square  miles  of 


STEPHEN   A.   DOUGLAS  233 

territory,  and  the  way  was  open  for  the  Government 
to  lay  its  plans  for  the  greatest  undertaking-  ever 
proposed  by  the  most  latitudinarian  politicians. 
Davis,  hitherto  an  extreme  States-rights  leader  and 
disciple  of  Calhoun,  worked  out  the  program.  The 
constitutional  authority  for  building  a  Pacific  railroad 
was  deduced  from  the  "  war  powers  "  of  the  Federal 
Government,  and,  though  it  was  not  definitely  stated 
that  the  road  should  pass  through  the  recent  annex 
ation,  it  was  commonly  understood  that  such  was  the 
purpose  of  the  President  and  that  the  lower  South 
was  to  be  the  economic  and  social  beneficiary  of  the 
great  improvement.  Arkansas,  Texas,  and  California 
were  willing  and  anxious  to  build  the  parts  of  the 
road  that  passed  through  their  territory.  With  the 
exception  of  a  group  of  Gulf-city  representatives  and 
some  of  the  up-country  Democrats  of  the  older  South, 
the  leaders  of  the  party  approved  the  plan,  and  Pierce 
made  the  Pacific  railroad  the  burden  of  his  first  an 
nual  jiiessage  to  Congress.  Congress  voted  the  money 
for  the  preliminary  survey  of  five  routes  to  the  Pacific, 
and  confided  the  work  to  Jefferson  Davis,  the  recog- 
nized  leader  of  the  Administration.  The  people  of 
the  country,  long  familiar  with  the  arguments  of 
Asa  Whitney  and  others  in  favor  of  such  an  under 
taking,  made  no  objection,  though  men  of  political 
foresight  saw  the  far-reaching  purposes  of  the  scheme. 
To  effect  the  second  object  of  the  Democratic 
program,  the  purchase  of  Cuba,  Pierre  Soule,  of 
Louisiana,  was  sent  to  Spain.  Soule  was  one  of  the 
most  ardent  of  Southern  expansionists,  and  his  mis 
sion  was  not  relished  at  Madrid  any  more  than  it 


234         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

was  approved  by  conservative  Eastern  Democrats. 
In  support  of  the  new  Spanish  Minister,  John  Y. 
Mason,  of  Virginia,  and  James  Buchanan,  of  Penn 
sylvania,  both  former  members  of  the  Polk  Cabinet, 
were  sent  as  Ministers  to  France  and  England  re 
spectively.  Soule  made  little  progress  till  the  Black 
Warrior,  an  American  coasting  vessel,  was  seized  in 
1854  by  the  Spanish  authorities  in  Havana  and 
searched  in  the  expectation  of  finding  evidence  that 
the  people  of  the  United  States  were  still  assisting 
the  Cuban  insurrectionists.  No  proof  was  discovered, 
and  the  people  of  the  country,  especially  those  of  the 
South,  were  greatly  excited  ;  for  a  time  it  seemed  that 
war  would  ensue.  Davis  and  Soule  pressed  the  case 
upon  the  President,  at  the  risk  of  war  and  perhaps 
in,  the  hope  that  war  would  follow  and  that  thus 
Cuba,  so  long  coveted,  would  fall  into  the  lap  of  the 
United  States.  But  Marcy,  though  ambitious  of  an 
nexing  Cuba,  was  hard  pressed  by  Eastern  public 
opinion,  and  he  persuaded  Pierce  to  recall  his  hasty 
minister.  This  was  not  done,  however,  until  the  three 
ministers  concerned  had  met  at  Ostend  in  the  autumn 
of  1855  and  published  to  the  world  the  manifesto 
which  declared  it  to  be  the  purpose  of  their  Govern 
ment  not  to  allow  any  other  European  country  to  get 
possession  of  Cuba,  and  which  further  stated  that  the 
United  States  was  always  ready  to  pay  a  fair  price 
for  the  island.  A  more  moderate  man  succeeded 
Soule,  but  the  subject  was  pressed  at  Madrid  with 
increasing  persistence  during  the  remainder  of  that 
and  the  next  Administration. 

The  third  item  of  the  Democratic  policy,  the  ex- 


STEPHEN   A.   DOUGLAS  235 

pansion  of  American  commerce,  was  furthered  by  a 
continuation  of  the  subsidies  to  steamship  companies 
like  the  Collins  line,  which  put  upon  the  ocean  many 
vessels  of  the  best  and  largest  build.  Even  more  was 
planned  in  offering  Robert  J.  Walker  the  mission 
to  China,  and  the  appointment  of  Townsend  Harris, 
a  wealthy  New  York  merchant,  as  consul  to  Ningpo, 
Japan.  Walker  declined,  but  Harris  accepted,  and 
within  two  years,  with  the  assistance  of  Commodore 
Perry,  he  succeeded  in  opening  the  hermit  kingdom 
to  the  civilization  and  commerce  of  the  United  States. 
It  was  the  beginning  of  modern  Japan,  and  it  marked 
a  new  stage  in  the  development  of  American  trade 
in  the  Orient.  In  all  these  measures  Pierce  met  with 
some  opposition  in  the  East,  particularly  in  the  rough 
handling  of  the  Cuban  question  ;  and  there  was  much 
dislike  of  the  Southern  filibustering  against  Lower 
California  and,  especially  at  the  close  of  the  Admin 
istration,  against  Nicaragua,  which  was  seized  by 
William  Walker,  the  Tennessee  imperialist  already 
mentioned,  and  proclaimed  in  1856  a  slave  State. 
But  the  opposition  was  rather  to  the  spirit  and  tone 
of  things,  and  the  very  plain  subserviency  of  the 
President  to  Southern  wishes,  than  against  expansion 
as  such.  The  real  resistance  to  Pierce  came  on  an 
other  matter  and  in  the  most  unexpected  way,  in  the 
struggle  over  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill. 

The  stone  rejected  of  the  builders  really  became  the 
head  of  the  corner,  for  in  spite  of  all  that  the  Pierce 
Administration  could  do,  the  problem  of  the  North 
west,  which  Douglas  personified,  became  the  bone  of 
contention  between  the  sections,  and  again,  as  in 


236         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

1850,  the  South,  the  East,  and  the  Northwest  strug 
gled  for  supremacy.  When  the  Davis  plans  for  a 
southern  Pacific  railroad  were  maturing,  Senator 
Douglas,  the  head  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Ter 
ritories,  was  preparing  to  renew  his  six-year  fight  for 
the  opening  of  the  wide  Nebraska  hinterland  of  his 
section.  The  squatters  of  the  Kansas  and  the  Platte 
River  Valleys  were  already  confronted  with  hostile 
Indians  who  protested  against  the  unlawful  seizure 
of  their  lands.  And  now  that  wheat  and  corn  were 
becoming  great  staple  crops,  the  Northwestern  pio 
neers  were  loudly  demanding  that  the  natives  should 
not  be  permitted  to  cumber  the  ground.  They  must 
move  on  to  the  arid  desert  beyond  or  be  carried  into 
the  Southern  country,  which  Davis,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  trying  to  open  to  Southern  pioneers.  It  was  a  real 
conflict  of  interest  between  the  lower  South  and  the 
Northwest,  and  in  order  to  win,  the  Northwestern 
politicians  must  find  allies  in  the  East  as  Clay  had 
done  in  1825-36,  though  Douglas  as  an  "old-line" 
Democrat  could  not  so  readily  see  this. 

He  resorted  to  management  and  finesse.  He  found 
two  delegates  from  Nebraska  in  Washington  in  De 
cember,  1853,  one  from  what  was  soon  to  be  Kansas, 
the  other  from  the  pioneers  of  Nebraska.  It  was 
natural,  therefore,  for  him  to  change  his  Nebraska 
bill  of  the  former  sessions  into  a  bill  for  the  creation 
of  two  Territories,  with  the  two  rival  delegates  as 
their  prospective  spokesmen  in  Congress.  Besides, 
Douglas,  who  was  a  consummate  politician,  would 
have  two  more  loyal  followers  and  two  other  embryo 
States  in  his  wing  of  the  Democratic  party. 


The  Northwest  and  Its 

hinterland,  185O-1800, 

for  which  Douglas  and  bis 

followers  fought. 

SCALE  OF  MILES 


The  Southwest  and  its 

hinterland,  1S50-18GO, 

for  which  Davis  and  his 

followers  stood. 

SCALE  OF  MILES 


107'       Longitude         West  97'         from          Greenwich          87* 


117'       Longitude  West         107'        from  Breenwich        97' 


Conflicting  Sectional  Interests,  1850  -  1860 


238         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Hence  Douglas  prepared  for  the  removal  of  the 
Indians,  for  the  creation  of  two  Territories  instead 
of  one,  and  he  enlisted  in  his  cause  the  Senators  and 
Representatives  of  Indiana,  Illinois,  Iowa,  and  Wis 
consin,  by  showing  them  that  their  own  schemes  for 
the  granting  of  public  lands  to  assist  in  the  building 
of  railroads  would  be  furthered  by  their  voting  for 
the  opening  of  Nebraska.  Every  economic  and  po 
litical  instinct  of  the  people  of  the  Northwest  tended 
to  enlist  them  in  the  cause  of  Douglas  and  Nebraska. 
And  it  was  known  to  most  of  the  Chicago  public  and 
big  business  men  that  a  Pacific  railroad  was  to  be 
laid  from  Council  Bluffs,  a  point  already  in  railroad 
connection  with  Chicago,  to  San  Francisco,  in  the 
event  of  the  rapid  development  of  the  Platte  Eiver 
country.  But  St.  Louis  and  Missouri  leaders  would 
oppose  this  because  they  had  been  fighting  since  1848 
to  get  a  railway  to  the  Pacific  directly  from  Kansas 
City. 

There  was,  however,  a  vigorous  pro-slavery  party 
;  in  Missouri,  led  by  David  Atchison.  This  party  had 
I  overthrown  Ben  ton,  and  their  first  purpose  was  the 
\making  of  Kansas  a  slave  State.    It  was  the  western 
half  of  Missouri  which  now  controlled  the  State,  and 
the  commercial  element  of  St.  Louis,  to  which  the 
Pacific  railroad  was  so  attractive,  was  in  the  minor 
ity.  Douglas  won  Atchison  and  western  Missouri  to 
his  plans  by  holding  out  to  them  that  their  conten 
tion,  as  old  as  Missouri  itself,  that  the  Compromise 
of  1820  was  unconstitutional,  might  be  granted  by 
Congress.  When  this   was  fully  appreciated,   Ken 
tucky    and    Tennessee    leaders    became    interested. 


STEPHEN   A.    DOUGLAS  239 

Southern  newspapers  took  up  the  discussion  and 
Douglas  immediately  became  a  statesman.  Even  Jef 
ferson  Davis  was  led  to  commit  himself  to  the  new 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  when  the  anti-slavery  men  of 
the  East  began  to  attack  it.  And  on  Sunday,  Janu 
ary  22,  Pierce  promised  Douglas  the  official  support 
of  the  Administration. 

The  bill  now  provided  for  two  Territories  west  of  ^ 
the  Missouri  River,  for  the  formal  repeal  of  the  Mis 
souri  Compromise,  and  for  the  adoption  of  the  old 
Cass  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty,  whereby  the 
settlers  in  the  new  communities  were  to  determine 
for  themselves  whether  they  would  have  slaves  or  not. 
Jf  any  dispute  arose  as  to  this  a  test  was  to  be  made 
of  the  question  in  the  United  States  courts.  This 
looked  like  a  surrender  of  a  large  part  of  the  public 
domain  to  the  South,  and  the  repeal  of  the  semi- 
sacred  Compromise  was  perhaps  the  boldest  propo 
sition  that  had  ever  been  offered  in  Congress.  Still 
the  great  purpose  was  the  development  of  the  North 
west,  and  wise  public  men  might  have  seen  that  the 
populous  free  States  of  the  Northwest  would  inevi 
tably  win  and  make  the  400,000  square  miles  of 
Nebraska  free  territory  ;  and  if  the  railroad  bills 
which  Douglas  supported  and  tied  to  his  main  meas 
ure  by  all  kinds  of  promises  passed,  the  supremacy 
of  the  Northwest  would  be  certain. 

But  the  weakness  of  popular  government  is  the 
fact  that  public  men  are  seldom  strong  enough  to 
deny  themselves  the  opportunity  of  an  appeal  to  the 
people  on  a  side  issue,  if  such  appeal  promises  politi 
cal  victory.  The  day  that  Douglas  introduced  his 


240        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

bill,  there  appeared  in  the   New  York  papers,  The 
Appeal  of  the  Independent  Democrats,  signed  by 
Senators  Chase  and  Sumner  and  the  Free-Soil  mem 
bers  of  the  House.   It  was  an  able  protest  against  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  a  denuncia 
tion  of  the  "  unscrupulous  politician  "  who  made  this 
surrender  of  national  and  free  States  rights  in  order 
i  to  secure  for  himself  the  coveted   Presidency.    The 
\  essential  purpose  of  the  Douglas  legislation,  the  rapid 
N,  upbuilding  of  the  Northwest  and  the  blocking  of  the 
,/  Davis  plans  for  a  Pacific  railroad,  were  entirely  over' 
y  looked.  A  wave  of  excitement  swept  over  the  East 
and    the  New  England  colonies  of  the  Northwest. 
Petitions  poured  into  Congress,  meetings  were  held 
to  denounce  Douglas  as  a  second  Benedict  Arnold, 
and  he  was  burned  in  effigy  by  thousands  who  never 
took  the  trouble  to  read  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill 
or  seriously  contemplated  its   effects.    In  Congress 
Chase,  Sumner,   Seward,   and  even   moderates  like 
Edward  Everett  denounced  the  ambitious  politician 
from  Illinois  who  had  dared  to  "  sell  the  birthright 
of  the  free  States  for  a  mess  of  pottage."  It  was  a 
[revival  of  the  sectional  hatred,  as  well  as  of  the  fears 
iof  the  aggressive  planters  who  had  enticed  Douglas 
tto  go  one  step  farther  than  he  had  intended. 

Though  the  South  had  begun  to  fear  the  conse 
quences  of  popular  sovereignty  and  to  see  that  Dong- 
las  was  only  making  the  more  certain  the  power  of 
his  group  of  States,  its  spokesmen  felt  compelled 
to  support  him  in  a  fight  against  abolitionists  and 
anti-slavery  agitators.  Alexander  Stephens,  an  able 
Whig  leader  gf  Georgia,  and  most  other  members  of 


STEPHEN   A.   DOUGLAS  241 

that  party  in  the  South,  gave  Douglas  hearty  sup 
port.  The  struggle  developed  into  a  fight  between 
the  East  and  the  South.  A  great  many  of  the  fol-cX 
lowers  of  Douglas  were  won  away  from  the  original 
program  when  it  seemed  a  mere  question  of  slavery 
extension,  and  the  Democrats  of  the  Northwest  di 
vided  sharply.  After  four  months  of  angry  debate 
and  unprecedented  log-rolling  the  bill  became  law, 
and  the  President  promptly  organized  Kansas  and 
Nebraska  as  Territories.  Members  of  Congress  went 
home  after  the  adjournment  to  face  their  constitu- 
ents,  and  a  most  exciting  campaign  followed.  In 
Wisconsin  and  Michigan  a  new  party  was  organized. 
Its  appeal  was  to  the  fundamental  American  doc 
trines  that  all  men  are  equal  and  that  no  great  in 
terests  should  rule  the  country.  It  received  immedi 
ate  support  in  the  two  States  mentioned,  and  in  all 
the  counties  of  the  Northwest  where  the  New  Eng 
land  influence  was  predominant,  in  northern  Ohio, 
Indiana,  and  Illinois.  Naturally  the  remnants  of  the 
old  party  organizations,  the  Whigs  and  the  Free- 
Soilers,  lent  enthusiastic  support. 

Chase  and  Sumner  had  called  into  being  a  new 
idealist  movement  resembling  that  which  had  over 
whelmed  the  Federalists  in  1800,  and  a  group  of  new 
leaders,  soon  to  become  famous,  emerged.  In  addition 
to  the  well-known  names  already  mentioned,  there 
now  appeared  the  kindly,  shrewd  Abraham  Lincoln, 
of  Kentucky  and  Illinois;  J.  W.  Grimes  arose  in 
Iowa  to  threaten  a  Democratic  machine  which  had 
never  known  defeat ;  Zachary  Chandler,  of  Michi 
gan,  was  making  ready  the  stroke  which  was  to  un- 


EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

horse  the  great  and  popular  Cass  ;  and  Benjamin  F. 
Wade,  of  Ohio,  joined  Chase  and  Giddings,  thus 
making  up  the  trio  which  was  to  rule  that  State  for 
years  to  come.  The  young  and  vigorous  Republican 
party  of  the  Northwest,  guided  by  this  company  of 
ambitious  "  new "  politicians,  readily  effected  the 
union  of  East  and  Northwest  which  Adams  and  Clay 
had  long  striven  in  vain  to  perfect.  The  work  of 
Chase,  Seward,  Lincoln,  and  Simmer  of  these  years 
paralleled  that  of  Calhoun,  Jackson,  and  Benton  in 
1828  ;  and  as  a  result  the  Democrats  lost  their  hold 
on  the  legislatures  of  nearly  all  the  States  above  the 
Ohio  and  the  Missouri  Rivers,  and  their  overwhelm 
ing  majority  in  the  Federal  House  of  Representatives 
disappeared  as  if  overnight. 

While  the  new  Republican  party,  almost  wholly 
sectional  in  its  origin  and  perhaps  in  its  purposes, 
was  winning  leadership  in  the  country,  the  more  con 
servative  Whigs  of  the  East  sought  to  affiliate  with 
a  small  organization  of  nativists  who  called  them 
selves  Americans  and  whose  slogan  was  "America 
for  Americans."  Foreigners  should  be  barred  from 
citizenship  and  Catholics  should  be  ostracized.  In  the 
South  most  followers  of  Clay  and  in  the  East  many 
admirers  of  Webster  avoided  a  complete  surrender  to 
the  Democrats  by  stopping  in  this  halfway  house. 
The  "  Know-No  things,"  as  the  party  was  called  in 
derision  of  their  failure  to  answer  questions  about 
their  platform,  gained  so  many  followers  from  the 
dissatisfied  elements  of  the  older  parties  that  in  1855 
it  seemed  likely  they  would  sweep  the  country.  In 
Virginia  they  made  their  most  spectacular  campaign. 


STEPHEN  A.   DOUGLAS  243 

Henry  A.  Wise,  a  Whig  who  had  gone  into  the  Demo 
cratic  party  with  Stephens,  was  their  greatest  oppo 
nent,  and  in  the  gubernatorial  campaign  of  1855  he 
completely  discomfited  them ;  in  Georgia  they  like 
wise  lost  their  contest.  The  South  was  accepting  the 
Democratic  leadership  and  becoming  solid,  as  Cal- 
houn  had  prayed  that  it  might  become.  In  the  East, 
Seward  and  Weed  persuaded  most  of  the  Whigs  to 
unite  with  the  Republicans,  and  when  the  first  national 
convention  of  the  Americans  met  in  1856,  it  was 
clear  that  its  leaders  could  not  hold  the  Southern  and 
Eastern  wings  together  on  the  slavery  question.  The 
anti-slavery  Americans  bolted,  and  the  remnant 
which  remained  nominated  ex-President  Fillmore, 
who  in  the  succeeding  election  received  a  majority  in 
only  one  State,  Maryland,  though  his  popular  vote 
was  nearly  a  million.  The  parties  of  the  future  were 
plainly  the  Democratic,  Southern,  pro-slavery,  and 
well  organized,  and  the  Republican,  Northern,  we 
may  now  say,  anti-slavery,  and  also  well  organized. 
Meanwhile  the  frontiersmen  from  Iowa  and  Mis 
souri  were  trying  to  work  out  the  principle  of  popu 
lar  sovereignty  in  Kansas,  and  their  Governor,  An 
drew  Reeder,  was  doing  what  he  could  to  assist  them. 
Anti-slavery  aid  societies  in  the  East  sent  resolute 
men  to  Kansas  to  vote  and  save  the  Territory  from 
slavery,  and  pro-slavery  lodges  in  Missouri  went 
across  the  border  to  vote  against  and  perhaps  to 
shoot  Free-State  men  who  disputed  the  right  of  the 
South  to  plant  and  to  maintain  slavery  there.  Un 
der  these  circumstances  the  first  election  for  mem 
bers  of  the  territorial  legislature  was  a  farce.  Yet 


244         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Reecler  felt  obliged  to  let  the  new  assembly  go  on 
with  its  work  of  making  easy  the  immigration  of  mas 
ters  with  their  "  property  " ;  when  he  went  East  a  little 
later  he  took  occasion  to  protest  in  a  public  address 
against  the  intrusion  of  Missouri  voters.  He  was  re 
gretfully  removed  from  office,  though  he  returned 
to  Kansas  to  cooperate  with  Charles  Robinson,  a 
California!!  of  political  experience,  in  the  organiza 
tion  of  the  Free-State  party,  which  refused  to  recog 
nize  the  territorial  legislature  and  which  met  in  vol 
untary  convention  at  Topeka  in  the  autumn  of  1855 
and  drew  a  state  constitution.  In  this  document 
slavery  was  outlawed.  Following  the  example  of  Cali 
fornia,  representatives  of  the  new  government  asked 
for  prompt  admission  to  the  Union. 

The  Southerners  had  never  recognized  California 
as  properly  within  the  Union,  and  the  pro-Southern 
party  in  Kansas  made  open  war  upon  the  Topeka 
party  in  December.  Lawrence,  the  anti-slavery  head 
quarters,  was  besieged,  but  the  new  governor  man 
aged  to  compromise  so  as  to  prevent  bloodshed,  and 
the  two  governments  of  Kansas  continued  to  exist. 
The  Federal  Congress  was  compelled  to  decide  which 
of  the  questionable  governments  should  be  recognized 
as  lawful.  Since  the  Senate  was  Democratic  and  pro- 
Southern,  and  the  House  Republican  and  pro-North 
ern,  a  decision  was  impossible.  The  Topeka  consti 
tution  was  supported  by  the  House,  and  even  the  fair 
and  reasonable  bill  of  the  Senate  offered  by  Toombs 
in  1856  was  rejected.  This  called  for  a  submission 
of  both  parties  in  Kansas  to  an  election  safeguarded 
against  unlawful  interference  from  any  source.  It 


STEPHEN   A.    DOUGLAS  245 

seemed  that  Seward,  Chase,  and  their  friends  did 
not  desire  a  settlement  before  the  election.  And 
Simmer's  speech  on  the  "  Crime  of  Kansas  "  was  a 
challenge  to  war.  He  compared  Douglas  to  "  the 
noisome  squat  and  nameless  animal  whose  tongue 
switched  a  perpetual  stench,"  and  Senator  Butler,  of 
South  Carolina,  a  leader  of  the  highest  character, 
was  a  man  who  could  not  open  his  mouth  but  to  lie. 

The  war  of  the  sections  was  now  renewed  in  the 
most  bitter  form,  as  was  shown  when  Preston  Brooks, 
a  kinsman  of  Butler,  assaulted  Simmer  a  day  or  two 
after  the  speech,  resigned  his  seat  in  the  House  as 
Representative  from  South  Carolina,  and  was  imme 
diately  reflected.  Sumner  retired  from  the  Senate, 
a  hero  in  all  New  England,  and  Massachusetts 
ostentatiously  refused  to  fill  the  vacant  seat  during 
the  next  three  years,  thus  constantly  reminding  her 
people  of  Sumner's  vituperation  and  the  South  Caro 
lina  assault. 

When  the  Democrats  met  in  their  national  con 
vention  in  Cincinnati  in  June,  the  struggle  in  Kansas 
still  went  on,  and  the  excitement  of  the  Sumner- 
Bi'ooks  affair  had  not  subsided.  All  elements  of  the 
South  were  represented,  and  the  American  party 
showed  no  signs  of  being  able  to  carry  a  single 
Southern  State.  The  convention  accepted  Douglas's 
popular  sovereignty  as  its  platform,  but  nominated 
Buchanan  as  its  candidate.  He  was  "  available  "  be 
cause  he  had  been  out  of  the  country  for  four  years 
and  had  said  nothing  on  the  Kansas  quarrel.  John 
C.  Breckinridge,  of  Kentucky,  was  nominated  for 
the  Vice-Presidency  in  the  hope  of  winning  Tennes- 


246         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

see  and  Kentucky,  which  had  not  voted  for  a  Demo 
cratic  candidate  since  Jackson. 

The  Republicans  used  the  "  Crime  of  Kansas  "  as 
politicians  always  use  such  opportunities,  and  they 
made  an  appeal  to  the  Revolutionary  tradition  by 
calling  their  convention  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  June  17.  They  had  not  a 
bona  fide  delegation  from  any  Southern  State.  But 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  overlooked  by  both 
parties  for  many  years,  was  made  a  part  of  the  plat 
form.  The  Pacific  railway  was  indorsed  and  internal 
improvements  at  federal  expense  were  again  recom 
mended  to  the  country.  John  C.  Fremont,  son-in- 
law  of  Benton  and  an  explorer  of  national  fame,  was 
nominated  for  the  Presidency.  The  campaign  had 
already  been  waging  since  the  introduction  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill.  It  now  became  intense. 
Douglas  gave  Buchanan  his  loyal  support,  and  the 
great  Southern  planters  united  with  New  York  mer 
chants  and  New  England  conservatives  to  make  the 
Democratic  ticket  successful.  Even  Edward  Everett 
and  Rufus  Choate  made  public  announcement  of 
their  conversion  to  Democracy.  Large  sums  of  money 
were  sent  to  Pennsylvania  to  influence  the  vote. 
Southern  governors  in  a  conference  at  Raleigh  pro 
posed  secession  if  the  Democrats  failed,  and  Eastern 
radicals  urged  the  break-up  of  the  Union  if  the  slave 
power  continued  in  control. 

The  result  was  a  victory  for  the  conservatives,  or 
"  reactionaries,"  as  we  should  perhaps  say.  The  solid 
South  voted  for  Buchanan ;  and  Pennsylvania,  In 
diana,  Illinois,  and  California  were  found  in  the  same 


STEPHEN   A.   DOUGLAS  247 

column.  Fremont  received  the  support  of  a  solid 
East  and  all  the  Northwest  except  the  States  just 
mentioned.  The  fear  of  radicalism  and  the  distrust 
of  men  of  great  wealth  everywhere  had  defeated  the 
young  Republicans  ;  the  returns  showed  that  the 
Democrats  had  polled  200,000  more  votes  than  in 
1852,  and  there  was  no  reason  to  believe  that  the 
874,000  which  had  been  cast  for  Fillmore  would  not 
in  the  end  be  given  to  the  conservative  Democrats 
in  preference  to  the  sectional  Republicans.  There 
was  no  chance  for  the  enthusiastic  followers  of 
Seward  and  Chase  unless  the  majority  party  could  be 
broken  into  factions,  and  this  a  wise  and  able  Demo 
cratic  leadership  would  avoid. 

Strangely  Buchanan  formed  his  Cabinet  without 
consulting  Douglas,  so  far  as  can  now  be  ascertained. 
No  friend  of  his  was  appointed  to  high  office,  yet  the 
support  of  the  Northwest  was  the  one  condition  of 
continued  success.  In  the  foreign  policy  the  new 
Administration  made  no  change.  A  part  of  northern 
Mexico  and  all  of  Cuba  were  still  coveted  and,  till 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  efforts  were  made  to 
obtain  both.  Plowell  Cobb,  of  Georgia,  was  the  mas 
ter  spirit  of  the  Cabinet,  and  Jefferson  Davis  was 
the  Administration  leader  in  the  Senate. 

The  Supreme  Court,  composed  of  seven  pro-South 
ern  members  as  against  two  anti-slavery  men,  under 
took  to  give  a  coup  de  grace  to  the  quarrel  about 
slavery  in  the  Territories.  The  Missouri  Compromise 
had  never  been  passed  upon  by  the  court.  Now  a 
case  came  before  the  august  tribunal  which  gave 
opportunity  for  the  judges  to  say  whether  slavery 


248         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

could  be  prohibited  by  federal  authority  in  the  pub 
lic  domain.  Dred  Scott,  a  slave  belonging  to  a  Mis 
souri  master,  had  been  carried  into  Minnesota  and 
there  held  in  bondage.  He  sued  for  his  freedom  on 
the  ground  that  slavery  was  unlawful  in  free  terri 
tory,  under  the  Compromise.  The  case  was  before 
the  court  nearly  a  year  before  the  judges  gave  out 
their  opinion  that  Scott  was  not  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  and  that,  therefore,  he  could  not  sue 
in  the  federal  courts.  The  case  was  dismissed.  But 
the  judges  granted  a  rehearing  of  the  case,  and  in 
March,  1857,  hoping  to  assist  the  country  to  a  peace 
ful  solution  of  the  slavery  problem,  gave  out  a  so- 
called  dictum,  which  it  had  been  the  custom  of  the 
court  occasionally  to  submit  to  the  public.1  In  this 
document  the  judges  said  that  the  negro  was  prop 
erty,  and  that  as  such  the  Federal  Government 
must  protect  it  in  the  Territories.  This  was  the  Cal- 
houn  doctrine,  and  the  South  rejoiced  immoderately; 
the  Republicans  now  began  to  realize  that  the  courts 
were  in  alliance  with  the  slave-power,  and  they  were 
forced  to  attack  the  most  sacred  political  institution 
in  the  country. 

Both  parties  turned  to  Kansas  to  see  what  could  be 
won  there.  During  the  spring  of  1856,  when  Sumner 
and  Brooks  were  manifesting  the  spirit  of  the  mem 
bers  of  Congress,  the  Southern  and  Northern  groups 
in  Kansas  carried  their  warfare  to  similar  extremes. 
Lawrence  was  destroyed  by  the  pro-slavery  men  ; 
the  anti-slavery  men  returned  the  stroke  in  the  mas- 

1  Chief  Justice  Marshall  had  set  the  example  for  this  in  his  Mar- 
bury  vs.  Madison  dictum. 


STEPHEN   A.   DOUGLAS  249 

sacres  on  Pottawatomie  Creek.  John  Brown,  a  fa 
natical  New  England  emigrant,  imagined  himself 
to  be  commissioned  of  Heaven  to  kill  all  the  pro- 
slavery  people  who  fell  into  his  hands,  and  he  did  a 
bloody  work  which  under  other  conditions  would  have 
been  counted  as  murder  and  denounced  everywhere. 
But  in  the  autumn  of  1856  wealthy  and  benevolent 
men  in  the  North  applauded  him,  gave  him  money, 
and  held  meetings  in  his  honor. 

Into  a  Kansas  frenzied  with  the  work  of  Brown 
on  the  one  side  and  that  of  the  "  border  ruffians," 
as  the  Missourians  were  called,  on  the  other,  the 
President  sent  Robert  J.  Walker  as  governor,  com 
missioned  to  solve  the  insoluble  problem.  So  great 
was  the  faith  of  the  country  in  Walker  that  he  was 
hailed  as  the  next  President  of  the  United  States  by 
fair-minded  men  and  important  newspapers.  Walker 
called  an  election  for  a  constitutional  convention. 
Again  the  Missourians  participated,  and  the  Le- 
compton  constitution  was  the  result.  The  Free-State 
men  refused  to  recognize  the  convention  unless  the 
new  constitution  should  be  submitted  to  a  fair  vote. 
This  the  convention  refused  to  do,  and  the  governor 
appealed  to  the  President  to  compel  submission.  This 
was  denied,  and  Walker  resigned.  The  LecomptonJ 
pro-slavery  constitution  of  Kansas  was  submitted  to  1 
the  first  Congress  of  Buchanan  in  December,  1857,  \ 
and  the  Administration  urged  its  adoption.  WalkejJ 
openly  condemned  Buchanan  for  deserting  him,  and 
he  declared  the  Lecompton  constitution  to  be  a  fraud. 
Yet  the  leaders  of  the  South,  resentful  and  angry, 
supported  it,  and  the  majority  of  the  Senate  was  on 


250         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

the  same  side.  The  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court 
were  known  to  favor  it.  The  Republicans  urged  the 
adoption  of  the  Topeka  constitution  of  1855,  and  the 
majority  of  the  people  seemed  to  be  of  the  same 
view.  What  was  the  way  out  of  the  dangerous  im 
passe  ? 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

Most  interesting  and  trustworthy  accounts  of  subjects  discussed 
in  the  chapter  are:  T.  C.  Smith's  Parties  and  Slavery,  in  American 
Nation  series;  F.  Bancroft's  The  Life  of  William  H.  Seward  (1900); 
Allen  Johnson's  The  Life  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas  (1908);  O.  G.  Vil- 
lard's  John  Brown;  a  Biography  (1910);  L.  D.  Scisco's  Political 
Nativism  in  New  York  (1901);  William  Salter's  Life  of  James 
W.  Grimes  (1876);  George  W.  Julian's  Lif e  of  Joshua  R.  Giddings 
(1892).  Rhodes,  McMaster,  and  Schouler  treat  the  period  criti 
cally.  Some  special  studies  of  importance  are  P.  O.  Ray's  Repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  (1909);  Allen  Johnson's  Genesis  of 
Popular  Sovereignty  (Iowa  Journal  of  History  and  Politics,  in) ; 
F.  H.  Hodder's  Douglas  and  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  (Wisconsin 
Historical  Society  Proceedings,  1912);  and  E.  S.  Corwin's  The  Dred 
Scott  Decision  (American  Historical  Review,  xvu). 

Some  of  the  most  instructive  contemporary  narratives  will  be 
found  in  M.  W.  Cluskey's  Political  Text  Book  (1857),  and  Speeches, 
Messages,  and  other  Writings  of  A.  G.  Brown  (1859);  H.  Wilson's 
Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power  (1872-77) ;  Horace  Greeley's  The 
American  Conflict  (1864);  Mrs.  Jefferson  Davis's  Jefferson  Davis;  a 
Memoir  (1890);  J.  M.  Cutts's  Constitutional  and  Party  Questions 
(1866);  S.  J.  May's  Recollections  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Conflict  (1869); 
Works  of  Charles  Sumner  (1874-83),  and  many  other  works  of  a 
similar  character. 

William  McDonald's  Select  Documents  gives  the  most  impor 
tant  sources  for  this  whole  period.  But  the  Congressional  Globe, 
U.S.  Documents,  House  Reports,  34th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.,  vol.  n, 
must  be  studied  in  order  to  get  the  spirit  of  the  times. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

THE  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  had 
greatly  angered  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  North. 
The  sudden  rise  of  the  Republican  party  in  protest 
against  it,  and  the  promise  of  Northern  control  of 
the  Federal  Government,  heartened  them  to  the  great 
struggle  of  1856.  But  the  failure  to  win  the  populous 
States  of  Pennsylvania,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  and  the 
solid  front  of  the  South,  the  compact  pro-Southern 
Senate,  and  the  moral  effect  of  the  Dred  Scott  de 
cision  discouraged  them.  Moreover,  the  Republican 
victories  of  1854-55  proved  misleading,  for  in  1856 
and  1858  the  party  failed  to  win  a  majority  in  the 
House  of  Representatives.  All  that  the  ardent  prot- 
estants  and  idealists  could  do  was  to  block  extreme 
measures  in  Congress  and  enact  laws  in  the  Republi 
can  States  to  harass  the  "  enemy."  Seward  yielded 
the  struggle  to  the  extent  of  indorsing  popular  sover 
eignty,  which  did  indeed  promise  more  than  any  other 
line  of  procedure.  Greeley,  the  enemy  of  SewarcA 
but  the  arch-enemy  of  the  South,  actually  proposed) 
Douglas,  the  "  squire  of  slavery,"  for  the  Presidency  I 
in  1860.  Chase  seemed  to  be  losing  ground  in  Ohio,! 
where  he  had  never  had  a  majority  on  his  own  ac 
count.  Business,  as  we  have  already  seen,  had  made 
peace  with  the  South,  and  conservative  leaders  of 
the  East  regarded  slave-owners  as  in  the  same  class 


EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

morally  with  bankers  and  railway  directors.1  The 
federal  law  against  the  African  slave  trade  could  not 
be  enforced.  More  than  a  hundred  ships  sailed  unmo 
lested  each  year  from  New  York  Harbor  to  the 
African  Coast  to  bring  back  naked  negroes  for  the 
cotton  planters. 

The  outlook  was  so  dark  that  New  England  lead 
ers  returned  'regretfully  to  the  proposition  of  John 
Quincy  Adams  of  1843,  and  recommended  North 
ern  nullification  and  secession.  Massachusetts  had 
passed  an  act  in  1855  which  inflicted  a  penalty  of 
five  years  of  imprisonment  upon  any  man  who  aided 
in  the  enforcement  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  the 
United  States.  The  Supreme  Court  of  Wisconsin 
had  declared  the  same  law  unconstitutional  in  1854  ; 
in  1857  the  legislature  indorsed  this  view,  and  in 
1859  it  claimed  the  right  of  immediate  secession 
in  case  the  State  was  overruled  by  the  Federal  Su 
preme  Court,  or  in  case  any  attempt  should  be  made 
to  enforce  the  obnoxious  act  by  the  General  Govern 
ment.  Nearly  every  other  Northern  State  passed 
personal  liberty  laws  which  were  designed  to  prevent 
the  enforcement  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act,  and  their 
constitutional  justification  was  found  in  the  suprem 
acy  of  the  States  and  bolstered  by  the  opinion  of 
Judge  Story,  delivered  in  1842, 2  which  said  that 
no  private  citizen  need  obey  an  unconstitutional  law, 
state  or  national,  but  he  takes  the  risk  of  having  the 
courts  decide  it  constitutional  and  of  being  punished 

1  See   Charles  Francis  Adams's  letter  to  William  Lloyd  Garri 
son  in  The  Liberator,  January  27,  1 857. 

2  16  Peters'  Reports  of  the  Supreme  Court,  p.  536. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  253 

if  he  acts  on  his  own  judgment  before  the  proper 
court  has  adjudged  the  act  unconstitutional. 

It  was  not  unnatural,  then,  that  Charles  Sunnier 
should  indorse  the  abolitionist  campaign  against  the 
Union,  or  that  Benjamin  F.  Wade  should  eulogize 
the  Wisconsin  threats  to  secede,  Richard  H.  Dana, 
of  Boston,  said  that  men  who  had  called  him  a  traitor 
a  few  years  before  now  stopped  him  on  the  street  to 
talk  treason.  N.  P.  Banks,  the  Speaker  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  said  in  Maine  :  "  I  am  not  one  of 
the  class  who  cry  for  the  perpetuation  of  the  Union." 
The  Worcester  convention  of  January  15,  1857,  did 
actually  and  by  big  majorities  pass  resolutions  call 
ing  for  a  dissolution  of  the  Federal  Government,  and 
its  call  for  a  convention  of  all  the  free  States,  looking 
to  the  same  end,  was  signed  by  seven  hundred  men 
of  all  walks  of  life ;  many  of  them  were  men  of  emi 
nence.  The  political  abolitionists  and  the  anti-slavery 
men  of  pronounced  views  were  on  the  point  of  going 
over  to  the  Garrison  party,  which  had  always  pro 
claimed  that  the  Union  was  a  "  league  with  hell," 
and  so  strong  was  the  campaign  against  the  Union 
that  Governor  Wise,  of  Virginia,  and  others  recom 
mended  a  war  upon  New  England  in  order  to  bring 
the  abolitionists  to  subjection. 

But  the  darkest  hour  comes  just  before  dawn. 
When  Buchanan  recommended  in  the  message  of 
December,  1857,  the  admission  of  Kansas  under 
the  Lecompton  constitution,  Senator  Douglas,  to  the 
bewilderment  of  thousands,  openly  denounced  the 
President,  and  in  the  most  effective  speech  of  his  life 
led  a  secession  of  the  Northwestern  Democrats  from 


254         EXPANSION  AND   CONFLICT 

the  dominant  Southern  party.  He  showed  that  the 
application  of  his  popular  sovereignty  doctrine  in 
Kansas  would  solve  the  problem  of  slavery  in  the 
Territories,  and  that  the  Administration  was  violat 
ing  the  platform  on  which  it  held  office  in  espousing 
the  cause  of  the  pro-slavery  men.  It  was  a  remark- 
ajble  situation.  In  1854  Douglas  had  defeated  Davis 
and  Pierce  in  their  far-reaching  plans  for  the  devel 
opment  of  the  Southwest ;  Chase  and  his  allies  had 
defeated  Douglas  in  his  counter-scheme  for  the  growth 
of  the  Northwest  in  1854-55  ;  and  now  Douglas 
broke  the  solidarity  of  the  Democratic  party  and  gave 
hope  and  courage  to  the  North,  where  the  idea  of 
secession  was  fast  winning  the  minds  of  leading  men. 
If  Douglas  joined  the  Republicans,  the  overthrow  of 
the  South  was  assured  ;  if  he  became  an  independent 
candidate  for  the  Presidency,  the  Republicans  were 
made  certain  of  an  easy  victory.  It  was  this  that 
prompted  Greeley  to  indorse  Douglas  in  1857,  and 
caused  Seward  to  say  a  good  word  for  his  rival  and 
opponent. 

Buchanan  read  Douglas  out  of  the  party.  Jeffer 
son  Davis  denounced  him  as  worse  than  a  demagogue. 
Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  expressed  their  con 
tempt  for  "  the  ambitious  perpetual  candidate."  No 
settlement  of  the  Kansas  question  was  possible  under 
these  circumstances.  Douglas  returned  to  Illinois  in 
the  summer  of  1858  to  open  his  campaign  for  reelec 
tion  to  the  Senate.  He  had  never  been  so  popular 
before.  Chicagoans  who  had  denounced  and  spurned 
him  as  a  traitor  to  his  country  in  1854  now  gave 
him  the  greatest  ovation  that  city  had  ever  given  to 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  255 

any  one.  Big  business  men,  railroad  builders,  and 
laboring  men  hastened  to  give  him  assurance  of  their 
favor.  Even  partisan  opponents  went  over  to  the 
"  new  "  Douglas.  In  fact,  the  people  saw  that  his 
popular  sovereignty  idea  had  been  misunderstood.  It 
was  already  working  out  Northwestern  or  Free-State 
control  of  the  Territories,  and  the  fear  of  losing  the 
Territories  had  been  the  motive  for  following  Chase 
and  Sumner  in  1854. 

But  the  Republicans  of  the  Northwest  had  been 
planning  to  make  an  end  of  the  "  Little  Giant,"  the 
man  who  was  the  most  feared  of  all  the  public  lead 
ers  of  the  time.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  to  be  his  suc 
cessor  in  the  Senate.  Norman  B.  Judd,  Joseph 
Medill,  and  John  Wentworth  were  the  astute  ad 
visers  of  the  new  party  in  their  section.  Seward, 
Weed,  and  even  John  J.  Crittenden,  the  popular 
successor  of  Henry  Clay  in  the  United  States  Sen 
ate,  advised  the  Illinois  Republicans  not  to  oppose 
Douglas,  since  Douglas  was  already  doing  the  Dem 
ocrats  more  mischief  than  any  new  Republican  Sen 
ator  could  hope  to  do.  The  Eastern  leaders  were  con 
cerned  about  the  campaign  of  1860,  and  naturally 
they  cultivated  the  differences  of  their  opponents. 

Lincoln  was  also  making  plans  for  1860,  and  a 
defeat  of  Douglas  in  his  own  State  would  be  a  politi 
cal  event  of  the  first  magnitude.  And  there  was 
much  promise  of  success.  Had  they  not  elected 
Lyman  Trumbull  in  1855  in  spite  of  all  the  "great 
man  "  could  do  ?  Moreover,  the  Administration  had 
withdrawn  all  patronage  from  Douglas,  and  post 
masters'  heads  were  falling  fast  in  Illinois.  Indeed, 


256        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Buchanan  was  just  then  putting  up  anti-Douglas 
tickets  in  many  of  the  counties,  in  the  expectation 
of  electing  a  legislature  hostile  to  Douglas  if  not 
friendly  to  the  Washington  authorities.  Was  there 
ever  a  better  chance  for  the  new  group  of  leaders  ? 
Contrary  to  Eastern  advice  they  nominated  Lincoln 
as  the  opponent  of  Douglas,  and  that  shrewd  man 
and  able  logician  challenged  the  Senator  to  a  joint 
debate,  and  the  most  important  political  discussion  in 
our  history  followed. 

Lincoln  had  declared  in  a  recent  speech  that  "  a 
house  divided  against  itself  could  not  stand,"  and  the 
United  States  he  likened  to  the  divided  house.  Doug 
las  seized  upon  this  to  show  the  country  what  a  radi 
cal  abolitionist  Lincoln  was,  for  was  it  not  a  dis 
ruption  of  the  Union  of  which  he  spoke  so  cogently, 
and  which  the  abolitionists  were  just  now  urging? 
Nothing  was  more  unpopular  in  the  Northwest  than 
disunion.  All  the  papers  of  the  country  now  printed 
what  Lincoln  had  said,  and  with  Douglas's  dispar 
aging  comment.  The  business  interests  of  the  East 
shuddered  at  the  Lincoln  parable. 

But  Lincoln  took  occasion  at  Freeport  to  make 
Douglas  even  more  unpopular  in  the  South  than  he 
already  was,  by  asking  him  if  he  did  not  support  the 
Dred  Scott  decision ;  also  if  he  still  adhered  to  the 
popular  sovereignty  doctrine  as  a  means  of  settling 
the  slavery  problem  in  the  Territories.  Douglas  an 
swered  in  the  affirmative  to  both  queries.  Where 
upon  Lincoln  showed  that  if  the  Dred  Scott  decision 
held,  Congress  must  protect  slavery  in  all  the  Terri 
tories  ;  and  if  the  popular  sovereignty  idea  prevailed, 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  257 

the  squatters  of  any  Territory  might  by  popular  vote 
prohibit  slavery  in  any  Territory.  Hence,  accord 
ing  to  Douglas,  slavery  could  be  lawfully  maintained 
and  lawfully  abolished  at  the  same  time  and  place. 
Douglas  recognized  his  predicament ;  but  he  replied 
that,  in  spite  of  the  court's  decision,  the  settlers  of  a 
new  Territory  might  by  "  unfriendly  "  local  legisla 
tion  make  slavery  impossible.  When  the  papers  of 
the  country  published  this  lame  reply,  Southern  men 
everywhere  denounced  in  unmeasured  terms  "the 
demagogue  who  promised  one  thing  in  Congress  and 
another  in  Illinois."  The  Lincoln-Douglas  campaign 
continued  all  the  autumn,  and  the  country  became 
acquainted  with  the  obscure  lawyer  who  had  per 
sisted  in  his  purpose  to  run  against  Douglas  contrary 
to  the  counsels  of  the  leaders  of  his  party.  How 
ever,  Douglas  was  reflected  to  the  Senate,  to  the 
great  chagrin  of  both  Lincoln  and  the  President. 
After  the  excitement  following  the  break  of  Dou»-- 

o 

las  with  his  party,  the  Republican  newspapers,  which 
had  urged  Douglas  as  their  candidate  for  1860,  re 
turned  to  their  partisan  attitude.  To  most  people  it 
seemed  clear  that  Seward  should  be  the  Republican 
candidate  in  the  next  campaign,  and  Seward  was 
also  convinced  that  his  own  nomination  was  neces 
sary  and  inevitable.  The  conservative  wing  of  the 
party  in  the  East,  and  especially  New  England,  was 
devoted  to  him.  As  time  went  on  the  prize  seemed 
more  and  more  certain,  though  there  were  other 
competitors  in  the  field.  Simon  Cameron,  of  Penn 
sylvania,  Chase,  of  Ohio,  Lincoln,  of  Illinois,  and 
Edward  Bates,  of  Missouri,  were  "  favorite  sons."  For 


258         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

the  Democrats  the  outlook  was  anything  but  cheer 
ing.  The  "  regulars "  could  not  speak  of  Douglas 
but  with  imprecations.  Although  Douglas  controlled 
absolutely  all  the  Democratic  organizations  in  eight 
Northwestern  States,  if  we  include  Missouri,  a  most 
strenuous  campaign  was  waged  from  Washington 
against  him  in  the  hope  of  getting  control  of  the 
general  committee  of  the  next  convention.  John 
Slidell,  of  Louisiana,  and  August  Belmont,  agent  of 
the  Rothschilds,  in  New  York,  guided  the  maneu 
vers.  In  December,  1859,  when  Douglas  entered 
upon  his  new  term  with  an  air  of  triumph,  the  Sen 
ate  majority,  led  by  Jefferson  Davis,  promptly  re 
moved  him  from  the  chairmanship  of  the  Committee 
on  Territories,  which  was  the  signal  for  the  opening 
of  the  fierce  political  war  that  preceded  the  assem 
bling  of  the  Democratic  Convention  in  Charleston. 

Meanwhile  John  Brown,  influenced  by  the  polit 
ical  currents  then  running  in  favor  of  the  North,  led 
a  small  band  of  men  into  western  Virginia.  The  ob 
ject  was  to  start  a  slave  insurrection  and  in  the  end  set 
free  all  the  negroes  of  the  South.  Brown  received  or 
was  promised  $25,000  and  was  supported  by  men  of 
the  first  respectability.  On  October  16,  1859,  Brown 
seized  the  United  States  Arsenal  at  Harper's  Ferry 
and  called  upon  the  slaves  to  rise  against  their  mas 
ters.  In  the  fighting  which  ensued  Colonel  Wash 
ington,  a  grand-nephew  of  General  Washington,  was 
wounded ;  but  few  took  notice  of  names  in  that  first 
onset  of  the  Civil  War  or  thought  of  the  common 
history  of  the  sections.  Governor  Wise,  of  Virginia, 
hastened  the  militia  to  the  scene,  and  Captain  Robert 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  259 

E.  Lee  led  a  small  force  of  United  States  troops  to 
the  relief  of  the  endangered  community.  Brown 
failed  in  his  efforts  to  arouse  the  negroes,  who  were 
not  the  restless  and  resentful  race  they  were  thought 
to  be.  He  was  soon  surrounded  and  captured.  A  few 
people  were  killed,  but  the  institution  of  slavery  was 
not  touched. 

But  the  noise  of  the  attack  was  heard  around  the 
world.  In  the  North  men  of  the  highest  standing 
proclaimed  Brown  a  hero.  At  the  time  of  his  execu 
tion  in  December  so  thoughtful  a  man  as  Emerson 
compared  Brown's  gallows  to  the  cross  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  For  a  time  the  social  conscience  of  the 
East,  at  least,  sensed  this  attack  as  a  blow  against 
the  common  Erbfeind,  as  the  Germans  say  of  the 
French.  It  was  the  "  arrogant  South  "  that  had  been 
struck.  But  when  the  Congressional  investigation 
was  held,  Republican  leaders  and  religious  organiza 
tions  everywhere  insisted  that  they  had  never  known 
the  man,  though  there  was  a  widespread  feeling  that 
it  would  be  wise  for  the  Governor  of  Virginia  not 
to  visit  the  death  penalty  upon  the  "  deluded  "  pris 
oner. 

Governor  Wise  was  not  the  man  to  forgive  an 
assault  on  the  Old  Dominion,  and  he  never  thought 
of  granting  a  pardon.  He  urged  Virginia  to  reor 
ganize  her  militia,  and  he  filled  the  state  armory  with 
some  of  the  weapons  which  were  used  with  fatal 
effect  at  First  Bull  Run.  Other  Southern  States 
followed  the  example  of  Virginia  and  laid  in  sup 
plies  for  a  conflict  which  many  thought  inevitable. 
Nor  was  it  without  significance  that  new  military 


260        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

companies  and  regiments  were  organized  and  drilled 
in  many  parts  of  the  North  during  the  year  1860. 

After  months  of  angry  and  useless  debates  in 
Washington,  the  leaders  of  the  Democratic  party 
gathered  in  Charleston  in  April,  1860,  to  nominate 
their  candidates  for  the  Presidency  and  Vice-Pres 
idency.  No  other  town  in  the  United  States  was 
more  unfriendly  to  the  cause  of  the  leading  candi 
date,  Douglas.  As  the  delegates  gathered,  it  was 
seen  that  every  delegation  from  every  Northwestern 
State  was  instructed  to  vote  as  a  unit  for  Douglas, 
and  it  became  evident  that  a  safe  majority  would 
insist  on  his  nomination.  The  enthusiasm  of  the  fol 
lowers  of  the  "  Little  Giant "  surpassed  all  similar 
demonstrations  at  previous  conventions.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  committee  on  resolutions  was  op 
posed  to  Douglas,  and  by  a  vote  of  17  to  16  it  re 
ported  a  platform  which  was  simply  a  restatement 
of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  adding  only  that  the 
Federal  Government  was  bound  by  the  Constitution 
to  protect  slavery  in  the  Territories.  When  this  re 
port  was  read  in  the  convention  the  Douglas  major 
ity  rejected  it,  and  accepted  the  minority  report, 
which  was  the  "  popular  sovereignty  "  of  Douglas 
and  the  platform  of  1856,  for  which  all  the  South 
had  stood  in  the  campaign  of  that  year.  The  conven 
tion  was  deadlocked,  for  the  South  could  defeat 
Douglas  for  the  nomination  under  the  two-thirds 
rule,  and  Douglas  could  prevent  the  adoption  of  any 
Southern  program  or  the  nomination  of  any  candi 
date  other  than  himself.  On  Sunday,  April  30,  the 
clergy  and  the  congregations  of  the  city  prayed  as 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  261 

never  before  for  a  peaceable  solution  of  the  problem 
before  the  country,  and  every  one  seemed  to  recog 
nize  the  gravity  of  the  situation.  On  Monday  even 
ing,  William  L.  Yancey,  "the  fire-eater"  of  Ala 
bama,  after  a  most  remarkable  speech,  broke  the 
deadlock  by  leading  a  bolt  of  practically  all  the 
lower  Southern  States.  The  Tammany  Hall  delega 
tion  of  New  York  followed.  The  bolters  held  a  meet 
ing  in  another  hall  and  called  a  convention  of  their 
element  of  the  party  in  Kichmond  in  June.  The 
Douglas  majority  likewise  adjourned  a  day  or  two 
later  to  meet  in  Baltimore  at  the  same  time. 

The  historic  Jacksonian  party  had  broken  into 
factions.  Each  faction  nominated  a  candidate.  The 
Southerners,  supported  by  the  Buchanan  Adminis 
tration,  named  John  C.  Breckinridge,  a  moderate,  in 
the  vain  hope  of  winning  some  Northern  States  ;  the 
Douglas  men  offered,  of  course,  their  favorite,  and 
insisted  that  theirs  was  the  only  true  Union  ticket. 
A  third  convention  was  called  to  meet  in  Baltimore, 
and  its  nominees  were  John  Bell,  of  Tennessee,  and 
Edward  Everett,  of  Massachusetts.  This  was  the 
remnant  of  the  Know-Nothings  of  1856.  They  asked 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  Union  as  it  was ;  but  in 
the  ensuing  election  they  polled  three  hundred  thou 
sand  fewer  votes  than  Fillmore  had  received  in  1856. 
The  Republicans  met  in  Chicago  about  the  middle 
of  May,  the  advantage  of  local  sentiment  being  in 
Lincoln's  favor.  The  Seward  men  and  their  "  root 
ers  "  came  in  trainloads  from  New  York  and  Boston, 
and  both  in  Chicago  and  Charleston  a  plentiful  sup 
ply  of  whiskey  had  its  share  iu  the  manufacture  of 


262         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

enthusiasm.  Cameron  was  the  stumbling-block  of 
the  conservative  Eastern  Republicans,  and  he  was 
expected  to  command  his  price.  Horace  Greeley,  cast 
out  of  the  Republican  camp  by  the  Seward  men  in 
New  York,  came  as  a  delegate  from  Oregon,  and  he 
was  busy  from  morn  till  night  trying  to  defeat  Sew 
ard.  Chase,  Lincoln,  and  Bates,  though  they  were 
not  in  the  convention,  were  doing  what  they  could  to 
defeat  the  great  New  York  leader  on  the  ground  that 
he  could  not  possibly  carry  Indiana  and  Illinois.  It 
was  more  than  a  friendly  rivalry. 

In  drafting  the  platform  no  reference  was  to  be 
made  to  the  idealistic  Declaration  of  Independence,  so 
popular  in  1856;  but  the  resolute  threat  of  a  bolt, 
by  Joshua  R.  Giddings,  caused  a  reconsideration  and 
the  adoption  of  the  brief  reference  which  one  reads 
in  the  historic  document.  All  raids  into  States  or 
Territories  were  duly  denounced,  and  slavery  itself 
was  guaranteed  in  all  its  rights.  The  Pacific  railroad 
scheme  of  Douglas  was  again  indorsed,  and  the  old 
land  policy  of  the  West  found  expression  in  the  free 
homestead  plank.  The  tariff  ideas  of  Clay  appeared 
in  a  clause  which  promised  protection  to  American 
industry,  better  wages  to  American  labor,  and  higher 
prices  for  farm  products.  One  sees  here  the  genius  of 
political  management,  not  the  fire  of  reformers,  and 
if  the  Southerners  had  kept  cool  they  could  have  read 
between  the  lines  of  this  declaration  all  the  guaran 
tees  that  they  required,  save  alone  on  the  subject  of 
slavery  in  the  new  Territories,  which  the  Republi 
cans  could  not  possibly  yield  and  hold  their  follow 
ers  together.  It  was  an  alliance  of  the  East  and  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  263 

Northwest,  arranged  by  Seward  in  much  the  same 
way  that  Calhoun  arranged  the  combination  of  1828 
which  raised  Jackson  to  the  Presidency. 

To  the  surprise  of  the  country  and  especially  of  the 
East,  Cameron,  Greeley,  and  Bates  proved  able  to 
defeat  Seward,  and  Lincoln  was  nominated.  Many 
people  of  the  East  had  never  heard  of  the  successful 
candidate  till  they  read  in  the  papers  that  he  had 
won.  Lincoln  was  moderate  in  temper  and  concilia 
tory  in  tone,  like  the  platform,  but  he  was  a  sincere 
democrat,  one  who  was  in  mind  and  thought  one  of 
the  people.  The  great  men  of  the  party  who  had 
borne  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day  felt  outraged. 
Sumner  never  forgave  Lincoln  for  his  lack  of  cul 
ture,  and  for  a  time  it  seemed  that  Seward  would  not 
give  his  humble  rival  the  support  necessary  to  suc 
cess.  "  The  rail-splitter  "  of  Illinois  was  ridiculed  in 
the  older  Republican  States  as  no  other  presidential 
candidate  had  been  since  "  Old  Hickory  "  offered  him 
self  as  against  the  seasoned  statesmanship  of  John 
Quincy  Adams.  The  gentry  of  the  East  were  in  a 
worse  plight  than  were  the  Southern  statesmen  of 
1828,  for  Lincoln  was  more  of  a  democrat  than 
Jackson  had  been. 

But  if  certain  classes  of  the  East  accepted  mourn 
fully  the  candidate  of  their  party,  the  plain  people 
everywhere,  farmers,  mechanics,  shopkeepers,  and 
the  smaller  industrial  interests,  rejoiced  that  one  of 
their  own  had  been  selected.  While  it  is  not  likely 
that  this  caused  many  changes  from  one  party  to  an 
other,  it  did  tend  to  bring  out  the  vote  and  prevent 
the  election  from  going  to  the  House.  Professional 


264         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

abolitionists  could  not  honestly  support  the  platform 
of  the  Republicans,  but  anti-slavery  men,  old-line 
Whigs,  half  of  the  former  Know-Nothing  party,  and 
all  of  those  who  had  so  long  feared  or  hated  the 
South  could  cheerfully  vote  for  Lincoln.  In  the 
Northwest  it  was  an  evenly  matched  contest.  Doug 
las  was  only  a  little  less  popular  than  his  great  rival, 
the  cause  of  his  final  defeat  being  the  decision  of  the 
German  element  to  cast  in  their  lot  with  the  Repub 
licans.  Carl  Schurz,  one  of  the  best  men  who  ever 
took  part  in  American  public  life,  and  a  radical  of 
the  radicals,  exercised  a  decisive  influence  and  turned 
the  tide  in  Illinois  and  Iowa,  where  a  few  thousand 
votes  lost  would  have  defeated  Lincoln.  Though  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  Republicans  was  not  so  great  as 
it  had  been  in  1856,  the  people  of  the  East  and  the 
Northwest  did  unite  against  the  South,  as  planned  in 
the  Chicago  platform,  which  so  well  represented  the 
interests  of  the  combination. 

The  South  gave  every  evidence  that  secession 
would  follow  the  election  of  Lincoln,  and  when  the 
Maine  campaign  indicated  that  Lincoln  would  surely 
be  chosen,  Douglas  gave  up  his  canvass  in  the  North 
west  and  went  South  in  the  hope  of  saving  the  Union 
by  urging  the  leaders  there  that  secession  would  mean 
war.  In  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  and  Alabama  he 
foretold  plainly  the  awful  consequences  of  secession. 
But  the  lower  South  paid  little  heed  ;  their  leaders, 
Rhett  and  Yancey,  were  ready  to  take  the  first  steps 
to  disrupt  the  Union  upon  the  receipt  of  news  that 
the  Democrats  had  lost  the  election.  To  them  Lin 
coln  was  not  only  a  democrat  who  believed  in  the 


The  Presidential  Election  of  1860 


SCALE  OF  MIL  ES 


1  Counties  which  voted  for 
J      Lincoln 


Counties  which  voted  for 
Breckinridge 


All  other  Candidate's 
S.C.  vote  is  apportioned. 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  265 

equality  of  men  before  the  law:  he  was  also  a  "  black 
Republican,"  the  head  of  a  sectional  party  whose 
platform  bespoke  sectional  interests  and  the  isolation 
of  the  South. 

In  the  end  Lincoln  received  a  popular  vote  slightly 
greater  than  that  of  Buchanan  in  185G,  and  the  elec 
toral  vote  of  every  State  from  Maine  to  Iowa  and 
Minnesota.  Douglas  received  a  larger  vote  than  Fre 
mont  had  received,  but  only  twelve  electoral  votes. 
It  was  plain  that  the  people  of  the  North  were  by  no 
means  unanimous,  and  that  Lincoln  would  have  great 
difficulty  in  carrying  out  any  severely  anti-Southern 
measures,  especially  as  the  Republicans  had  failed  to 
carry  a  majority  of  the  congressional  districts.  Thus 
the  blunders  of  Douglas  and  Chase  in  1854  had 
started  the  dogs  of  sectional  warfare,  and  now  a  solid 
North  confronted  a  solid  South,  with  only  two  or 
three  undecided  buffer  States,  like  Maryland  and 
Missouri,  between  them. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  born  in  Kentucky  of  Virginia 
parentage,  married  to  a  Southern  woman,  accus 
tomed  from  boyhood  to  the  narrow  circumstances  of 
the  poor,  and  still  unused  to  the  ways  of  the  great, 
was  called  to  the  American  Presidency.  He  was  not 
brusque  and  warlike  as  Jackson  had  been  ;  he  was  a 
kindly  philosopher,  a  free-thinker  in  religion  at  the 
head  of  an  orthodox  people,  or  peoples.  A  shrewd 
judge  of  human  character  and  the  real  friend  of  the 
poor  and  the  dependent,  Lincoln,  like  his  aristocratic 
prototype,  Thomas  Jefferson,  believed  implicitly  in 
the  common  man.  He  was  ready  to  submit  anything 
he  proposed  to  a  vote  of  the  mass  of  lowly  people, 


266         EXPANSION  AND   CONFLICT 

who  knew  little  of  state  affairs  and  who  never  ex 
pected  to  be  seen  or  heard  in  Washington.  People 
who  had  preached  democracy  to  Europe  for  nearly 
a  century  had  now  the  opportunity  of  submitting  to 
democracy.  It  was  the  severest  test  to  which  the 
Federal  Government  had  ever  been  subjected. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

Rear  Admiral  Chadwick's  Causes  of  the  Civil  War,  in  the  Ameri 
can  Nation  series  (1906);  Nicolay  and  Hay's  Abraham  Lincoln:  A 
History  (1890);  Ida  M.  Tarbell's  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
(1900);  O.  G.  Villard's  John  Brown;  A  Biography  (1910);  G.  T. 
Curtis's  The  Life  of  James  Buchanan  (1883);  A.  H.  Stephen's  War 
between  the  States  (1868-70);  Jefferson  Davis's  Rise  and  Fall  of 
the  Confederate  Government  (1881);  Murat  Halstead's  Conventions 
of  1860;  G.  Koerner's  Memoirs;  Carl  Schurz's  Reminiscences; 
James  A.  Pike's  First  Blows  of  the  Civil  War  (1879);  George  W. 
Julian's  Political  Recollections  (1884) ;  and  Henry  S.  Foote's  Casket 
of  Reminiscences  (1874),  may  be  added  to  the  works  already  men 
tioned.  E.  D.  Fite's  The  Campaign  of  1860  (1911)  is  valuable, 
although  Rhode's  account  of  the  campaign  equals  Fite's ;  and 
E.  Stanwood's  A  History  of  the  Presidency  (1898)  gives  the  plat 
forms  and  the  votes  of  the  parties  for  each  national  election. 

The  Tribune  Almanac  gives  the  votes  by  counties,  while  Rich 
ardson's  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents,  already  named 
in  earlier  notes,  and  the  Statutes  at  Large  of  the  United  States  supply 
the  texts  of  important  papers,  laws,  and  treaties.  Richard  Peters's 
Reports  of  Cases  Argued  in  the  Supreme  Court  and  B.  C.  Howard's 
continuation  of  this  series  supply  the  decisions  of  the  Federal 
Supreme  Court.  U.  B.  Phillips's  Correspondence  of  Toombs, 
Stephens,  and  Cobb,  in  the  Reports  of  the  American  Historical 
Association  (1911),  is  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  sources  of  the 
period. 

Special  studies  of  importance  are:  W.  E.  B.  DuBois's  Suppres 
sion  of  the  African  Slave  Trade  (1896);  M.  G.  McDougall's  Fugi 
tive  Slaves  (1891),  J.  C.  Kurd's  Law  of  Freedom  and  Bondage  (1858); 
Edward  McPherson's  Political  History  of  the  United  States  (1865); 
John  H.  Latane's  Diplomacy  of  the  United  States  in  Regard  to 
Cuba,  in  American  Historical  Association  Reports  (1907);  J.  M. 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  267 

Callahan's  Evolution  of  Seward's  Mexican  Policy  (1909) ;  Phillips's 
Life  of  Robert  Toombs  (1914);  and  H.  White's  Life  of  Lyman 
Trumbull  (1913).  Of  peculiar  value  for  the  spirit  of  the  times 
are:  Mrs.  Roger  A.  Pryor's  Reminiscences  of  Peace  and  War 
(1905);  Mrs.  James  Chesnut's  A  Diary  from  Dixie  (1905);  and 
William  H.  Russell's  My  Diary  North  and  South  (1863). 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE    APPEAL    TO    ARMS 

THOUGH  the  South  had  voted  as  a  unit  for  Buch 
anan  in  1856  and  her  leaders  had  long  acted  in  con 
cert  on  important  matters,  the  election  of  Lincoln 
by  a  "  solid  "  North  was  regarded  by  most  owners  of 
slaves  as  a  revolutionary  act ;  and  the  Southern 
reply  to  the  challenge  was  secession.  The  idea  of 
secession  was  familiar  in  1860.  In  1794  New  Eng 
land  leaders  in  Congress  had  discussed  such  a  remedy 
when  it  seemed  certain  that  the  Southerners  would 
gain  permanent  control  of  the  national  machinery, 
and  Westerners  contemplated  the  same  remedy  for 
ills  they  could  not  otherwise  cure  during  the  period 
of  1793  to  1801.  Rather  than  submit  to  the  burden 
some  embargo  and  the  more  burdensome  second  war 
with  England,  most  New  Engand  men  of  property 
seem  to  have  preferred  the  dissolution  of  a  union 
which  was  formed  for  commercial  purposes  ;  and  we 
have  seen  how  Webster  urged  resistance  to  the  na 
tional  tariff  in  1820  even  to  the  point  of  advising 
secession.  The  rightful  means  of  local  self-defense 
was  a  break-up  of  the  confederacy,  until  in  1830 
Jackson,  speaking  for  the  West,  and  Webster,  speak 
ing  for  the  rising  industrial  group  of  the  Northeast, 
announced  that  the  Union  was  indissoluble  and  that 
an  attempt  to  sever  it  would  be  accounted  treason. 
A  sense  of  nationality  had  come  into  existence,  and 


THE   APPEAL   TO   ARMS  269 

a  permanent,  "  sacred  "  union  of  all  the  States  was 
the  corollary  of  that  belief. 

Still,  when  the  South,  with  its  resolute  program 
of  expansion  and  the  vigorous  national  control  which 
characterized  the  Democratic  Administrations  from 
Polk  to  Buchanan,  made  slavery  a  cardinal  tenet  of 
its  faith,  legislatures  and  courts  of  the  East  refused 
to  regard  either  the  Constitution  or  the  federal  law 
as  paramount  and  abiding.  Secession  was  a  com 
mon  word  among  the  constituents  of  New  England 
Senators  after  1840,  and  even  Northwestern  States 
threatened  disruption  of  the  Union  as  late  as  1859 
if  the  national  policy  should  continue  to  run  coun 
ter  to  their  interests.  There  was,  however,  a  strong 
undercurrent  of  devotion  to  the  idea  of  national 
ity  in  both  North  and  South1  in  1860,  and  when 
South  Carolina  proceeded  with  her  long-contem 
plated  scheme  of  secession  early  in  November  of 
that  year,  Jefferson  Davis,  who  had  formerly  talked 
freely  of  that  "  last  remedy  "  of  minority  interests, 
advised  against  the  movement ;  and  every  where  North 
and  South  men  of  great  wealth,  as  well  as  the  poorer 
people,  who  must  always  bear  the  heaviest  burdens 
of  war,  deprecated  and  warned  against  the  applica 
tion  of  a  remedy  which  all  sections  had  at  one  time 
or  another  declared  right  and  lawful.  As  men  came 
nearer  to  the  application  of  their  "  rightful  "  remedy, 
the  older  and  cooler  heads  urged  the  leaders  of  South 
Carolina  not  to  withdraw  from  the  national  confed 
eration.  Republicans  like  Seward  and  Weed  and 

1  Perhaps  we  may  use  these  terms  now  to  describe  the  two  great 
sections  of  the  country  as  the  Civil  War  approached. 


270         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Lincoln  exerted  themselves  to  the  utmost  to  dis 
suade  the  Southern  radicals;  all  the  influence  of  the 
Bell  and  Everett  party  was  cast  into  the  same  side 
of  the  scales  ;  and  Congress,  when  it  assembled  in 
December,  1860,  was  pressed  from  every  possible 
angle  to  arrange  some  compromise  which  would  sat 
isfy  the  angry  element  in  the  lower  South.  Even 
Republicans  of  the  more  radical  type  offered  to  do 
anything,  except  assent  to  the  further  expansion  of 
slavery  in  the  Territories,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
formation  of  a  Southern  Confederacy  and  the  ex 
pected  paralysis  of  business. 

Nothing  availed.  South  Carolina,  under  the  lead 
ership  of  Robert  Barnwell  Rhett,  called  a  state  con 
vention  which  met  in  Columbia,  but  adjourned  to 
Charleston,  and  on  December  20  severed  all  connec 
tion  with  the  National  Government  and  recalled  her 
Representatives  in  Congress.  President  Buchanan 
did  not  favor  secession,  and  he  hoped  that  some  way 
might  be  found  to  settle  the  difficulties  which  un- 

o 

derlay  the  crisis.  In  his  message  to  Congress  he  de 
clared  that  there  was  no  right  of  secession,  but  that 
there  was  also  no  authority  anywhere  to  prevent  se 
cession.  This  was  at  the  time  the  view  of  most  others 
in  the  North,  perhaps  in  the  South,  for  Southern 
ers  spoke  frequently  of  the  "  revolution  "  they  were 
precipitating.  When  the  demand  of  South  Carolina 
for  the  surrender  of  Fort  Sumter  was  presented  to 
the  President,  he  decided  to  delay  action  until  his 
successor  was  inaugurated.  This  was  not  irregular 
nor  unusual,  but  gave  the  people  of  the  South  time  to 
decide  what  they  would  do ;  and  before  February  1, 


THE   APPEAL   TO   ARMS  271 

1861,  Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  and 
Louisiana  withdrew  from  the  Union,  though  not 
without  strenuous  resistance  by  large  parties  in  all 
these  communities,  save  Florida.  Early  in  February 
delegates  from  these  States  gathered  in  Montgomery, 
Alabama,  and  organized  a  Southern  Confederacy  011 
the  model  of  the  older  Union,  and  made  Jefferson 
Davis  President.  Alexander  Stephens,  who  had  done 
more  than  any  other  Southerner  to  delay  and  defeat 
secession,  was  elected  Vice-President.  The  new  con 
stitution  was  conservative  if  not  reactionary  in  char 
acter.  Slavery  was  definitely  and  specifically  made 
a  corner-stone  of  the  new  government.  The  foreign 
slave  trade  was,  in  deference  to  border  state  opinion, 
forbidden ;  but  free  trade,  which  had  so  long  been  a 
bone  of  contention  between  the  planters  of  the  South 
and  the  manufacturers  of  the  East,  was  left  to  the 
wisdom  of  ordinary  legislation.  In  fact  many  of  the 
ablest  Southern  leaders  foresaw  the  establishment  of 
a  protective  system  in  the  South.  In  the  same  spirit 
of  statesmanlike  compromise,  President  Davis  was 
careful  to  fill  the  Cabinet  and  other  important  posts 
with  men  who  represented  all  phases  of  opinion,  with 
former  rivals  and  even  decided  opponents  of  the 
cause  he  represented.  So  cautious  and  considered 
was  this  program  of  the  new  administration  that 
ardent  secessionists  declared  before  the  fall  of  Fort 
Sumter  that  a  reunion  with  the  older  Federal  Gov 
ernment  was  the  object.  And  the  mild  and  concili 
atory  attitude  of  William  H.  Seward,  who  was  con 
sidered  as  a  sort  of  acting  president  during  the  winter 
of  1860-61,  strengthened  this  feeling  in  the  South. 


EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

The  Southern  commissioners  whom  Davis  sent  to 
Washington  to  negotiate  with  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  on  the  subjects  of  boundaries  between  the  two 
countries,  the  division  of  the  public  debt,  and  the 
surrender  of  forts  within  Confederate  territory  were 
great  favorites  in  the  old  national  capital.  A  friendly 
attitude  toward  the  new  South  still  further  found 
expression  in  the  New  York  Tribune,  supposed  to 
speak  for  Republicans  in  general,  in  the  Albany 
Journal,  Thurlow  Weed's  paper,  and  even  in  the 
New  York  Times,  Seward's  organ. 

In  fact  the  people  of  the  North  preferred  a  per 
manent  disruption  of  the  Union  to  a  great  war,  the 
inevitable  alternative.  Nationalist  sentiment  was 
strong  in  the  North,  but  not  strong  enough  to  make 
men  positive  and  decided  in  their  actions.  President 
elect  Lincoln  expressed  this  state  of  the  public  mind 
in  his  inaugural,  when  he  said  that  he  would  faith 
fully  execute  the  laws  unless  the  people,  his  rightful 
masters,  should  refuse  their  support,  and  he  showed 
it  still  more  clearly  when  he  adopted  the  policy  of 
delay  in  determining  the  status  of  Fort  Sumter  which 
his  predecessor  had  so  long  followed.  The  Cabinet 
of  Buchanan  had  been  undecided,  that  of  Lincoln 
was  for  a  whole  month  equally  undecided.  Men  hoped 
to  avoid  what  all  feared,  civil  war ;  and  it  is  to  the 
credit  of  both  sections  and  both  cabinets  that  they 
hesitated  to  commit  the  overt  act  which  was  to  set 
free  the  "  dogs  of  war "  ;  and  while  public  opinion 
was  thus  halted  at  the  parting  of  the  ways,  Virginia, 
still  thought  of  as  the  great  old  commonwealth  and 
mother  of  statesmen,  called  a  peace  congress  of  North 


THE   APPEAL   TO   ARMS  273 

and  South.  Delegates  from  twenty-one  States  con 
ferred  together  in  Washington  for  six  weeks,  seek 
ing  a  way  out  of  the  difficult  and  perilous  situation. 
Conservative  members  of  Congress,  John  J.  Critten- 
den,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  William  H.  Seward,  and 
others,  labored  in  the  same  cause.  It  is  acknowl 
edged  by  all  that  a  popular  referendum  would  have 
brought  an  overwhelming  mandate  to  let  the  "de 
parting  sisters  go  in  peace,"  or  to  accept  the  former 
Southern  demand  of  a  division  of  the  western  terri 
tory  from  Kansas  to  the  Pacific  along  the  line  of 
36°  30'. 

But  stiff-backed  Republicans  like  Senator  Chand 
ler,  of  Michigan,  Charles  Sunnier,  and  Secretary 
Chase  were  unwilling  to  throw  away  the  results  of  a 
victory  constitutionally  won,  even  to  avoid  a  long  and 
bloody  war.  And  these  men  brought  all  the  influ 
ence  thev  could  command  to  bear  upon  the  President 
and  his  Cabinet  during  the  early  days  of  April. 
They  contended  that  every  moment  of  delay  increased 
the  likelihood  of  Southern  success,  and  they  urged 
that  the  young  Republican  party,  which  was  per 
haps  as  dear  to  them  as  the  country  itself,  was  losing 
ground.  At  last  President  Lincoln  yielded,  and  a  re 
lief  expedition  was  ordered  to  Fort  Sumter  on  April 
6,  where  Major  Robert  Anderson  and  his  garrison 
had  bravely  and  cautiously  maintained  their  difficult 
situation  in  the  face  of  an  angry  Southern  sentiment 
for  nearly  four  months.  This  was  recognized  as  a  war 
like  move ;  and  Secretary  Seward  was  so  much  opposed 
to  it  and,  the  Southerners  contended,  so  sacredly 
bound  not  to  allow  its  departure,  that  he  interfered 


274         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

with  the  expedition,  by  sending  orders,  signed  by 
himself  for  the  President,  intended  to  thwart  the 
move. 

Under  circumstances  so  peculiar  and  delicate  it 
was  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  Confederate 
President  keep  his  head.  The  responsibility  for  re 
gaining  control  of  Fort  Sumter  passed  from  South 
Carolina  to  the  Confederate  Government  during  the 
early  days  of  February.  Major  Anderson,  who  held 
the  fort  with  a  small  Federal  garrison,  was  a  friend 
of  Jefferson  Davis,  and  was  keenly  alive  to  the  seri 
ousness  of  his  situation,  and  while  his  superiors  were 
in  doubt,  he  maintained  the  status  of  things  as  they 
were  when  the  negotiations  began.  But  the  authori 
ties  of  South  Carolina  forbade  the  sending  of  fresh 
supplies  of  provisions  to  his  men  after  April  6,  and, 
as  there  was  but  .a  limited  amount  on  hand,  it  was 
only  a  matter  of  weeks  before  he  must  evacuate,  if 
neither  the  North  nor  the  South  decided  what  should 
be  done.  April  15  was  the  day  which  he  set  for  giv 
ing  up  his  post  for  the  lack  of  sustenance.  If  he 
moved  away  peacefully,  there  would  be  no  war,  and 
such  was  the  hope  of  Seward  and  the  moderates  of 
the  North,  who  thought  that  a  friendly  reconstruc 
tion  would  be  the  result  of  continued  delay. 

Jefferson  Davis,  who  was  informed  daily  of  every 
move  that  was  made  in  Washington,  determined  to 
let  Anderson  quietly  evacuate  Fort  Sumter,  having 
assurances  from  Seward  that  no  supplies  would  be 
sent.  In  this  he  was  supported  by  the  unanimous 
opinion  of  his  Cabinet  until  on  April  9,  when  General 
P.  G.  T.  Beauregard,  who  commanded  the  troops 


THE   APPEAL   TO  ARMS  275 

gathering  at  Charleston,  telegraphed  that  the  Federal 
Government  had  given  formal  notice  that  assistance 
would  be  sent  to  the  starving  garrison.  Davis  still  de 
layed,  giving  conditional  orders  to  Beauregard;  and 
Beauregard  acted  in  the  same  spirit  when  he  sent 
Roger  A.  Pryor  and  three  other  aides  to  the  fort  to 
get  definite  assurance  on  the  point  of  Federal  sur 
render.  But  when  Anderson,  on  the  night  of  April 
12,  gave  assurance  that  on  April  15  he  would  give 
up  his  post  if  he  should  not  receive  contrary  orders 
from  Washington  prior  to  that  time,  the  four  aides 
of  General  Beauregard  who  had  been  sent  to  the  fort 
gave  notice  to  the  Confederate  artillery  commander, 
without  consulting  superior  authority,  that  the  answer 
was  not  satisfactory,  and  the  fatal  shelling  began. 
On  the  next  day  Anderson  and  his  men,  finding  the 
walls  of  the  fort  falling  about  them,  surrendered. 
The  war  had  begun. 

The  act  of  South  Carolina  on  December  20  led 
immediately  to  the  formation  of  the  confederacy  of 
the  lower  Southern  States.  The  firms:  on  Fort  Sumter 

O 

was  followed  in  a  few  days  by  the  secession  of  Vir 
ginia,  Tennessee,  and  Arkansas,  Texas  having  already 
joined  the  "  revolution  "  ;  Maryland,  Kentucky,  and 
Missouri  were  prevented  from  joining  the  new  con 
federacy  only  by  the  prompt  and  extra-legal  inter 
ference  of  President  Lincoln.  The  second  tier  of 
Southern  States  thus  joined  the  first,  and  a  confed 
eracy  of  some  ten  million  people  demanded  the  inde 
pendence  which  all  agreed  had  not  been  forbidden 
in  the  Constitution  of  1787,  and  began  at  once  the 
raising  of  armies  to  make  good  that  demand.  The 


276         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

boundaries  of  the  new  republic  were  extended  to  the 
Potomac;  commissioners  were  sent  to  the  European 
powers  to  sue  for  recognition,  and  hundreds  of  the 
best  officers  in  the  United  States  Army  resigned  to 
seek  commands  under  the  new  flag. 

The  popular  excitement  and  enthusiasm  which  fol 
lowed  these  events  in  the  South  equaled  that  which 
marked  the  early  stages  of  the  French  Revolution. 
Party  lines  and  class  distinctions  disappeared.  Two 
hundred  thousand  volunteers  offered  their  services  to 
Jefferson  Davis ;  confederate  and  state  bonds  to  meet 
the  expense  of  the  war  were  taken  at  par  wherever 
there  was  surplus  money ;  men  met  at  their  court 
houses  to  drill  without  the  call  of  their  officers; 
and  women,  even  more  enthusiastic  than  the  men, 
urged  their  "guardians  and  protectors"  to  the  front 
to  meet  and  vanquish  a  foe  who  threatened  to  invade 
the  Southern  soil.  Armories  were  quickly  constructed 
in  a  country  which  knew  little  of  the  mechanic  arts ; 
guns  and  ammunition  were  ordered  from  Europe 
and  from  Northern  manufacturers  as  fast  as  trusty 
agents  could  make  arrangements;  shipbuilding  was 
resorted  to  on  the  banks  of  the  sluggish  rivers;  and 
machinists  and  sailors  were  imported  from  the  North 
and  from  England  to  guide  the  amateurish  hands  of 
the  South.  Before  midsummer  four  hundred  thousand 
Southerners  were  in  arms  or  waiting  to  receive  them. 
Colonel  Robert  E.  Lee,  accounted  the  first  soldier  of 
the  country,  was  made  a  general  in  the  new  army. 
Joseph  E.  Johnston,  Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  Pierre 
G.  T.  Beauregard,  and  others  accepted  with  confi 
dence  the  commissions  of  the  South,  and  set  hundreds 


THE   APPEAL   TO  ARMS  277 

of  younger  men,  trained  at  West  Point  or  at  the  Vir 
ginia  Military  Institute,  to  drilling  and  organizing 
the  armies  rapidly  gathering  at  strategic  points  along 
the  frontier,  which  extended  from  Norfolk,  Virginia, 
to  the  eastern  border  of  Kansas. 

The  planters  had  at  last  made  good  their  threat, 
and  the  aristocratic  society  of  the  South  was  welded 
together  more  firmly  than  it  had  ever  been  before. 
Their  leaders  frankly  stated  to  the  world  that  their 
four  billions  of  negro  property  was  of  more  impor 
tance  to  them  than  any  federal  union  which  threat 
ened  the  value  of  that  property  by  narrowing  the 
limits  of  its  usefulness.  The  negroes  knew  a  great 
war  was  beginning  and  that  they  were  the  objects 
of  contention  ;  but  long  discipline  and  a  curious  pride 
in  the  prowess  of  their  masters  kept  them  at  their 
lowly  but  important  tasks.  They  boasted  that  their 
masters  could  "  whip  the  world  in  arms."  Of  insur 
rections  and  the  massacre  of  the  whites,  which  at  one 
time  had  been  a  nightmare  to  the  ruling  classes  of 
the  South,  there  was  no  rumor.  And  throughout  the 
four  years  of  war  the  slaves  remained  faithful  and 
produced  by  their  steady,  if  slow,  toil  the  food  sup 
plies  both  for  the  people  at  home  and  for  the  armies 
at  the  front. 

The  small  slaveholder  was  the  most  enthusiastic 
and  resolute  secessionist  and  supporter  of  the  Con 
federacy.  He  was  just  rising  in  the  world,  and  any 
thing  which  barred  the  upward  way  was  denounced 
as  degrading  and  insulting.  A  larger  class  of  South 
erners  who  joined  with  measured  alacrity  the  armies 
of  defense  were  the  small  farmers  of  the  hills  and 


278         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

poorer  eastern  counties  ;  but  the  "  sand-hillers  "  and 
"  crackers,"  the  illiterate  and  neglected  by-products 
of  the  planter  counties,  were  not  minded  to  volun 
teer,  though  under  pressure  they  became  good  sol 
diers  because  they  dreaded  the  prospect  of  hordes  of 
free  negroes  in  the  South  more  than  they  did  the 
guns  of  the  North.  Small  farmers  arid  landless  whites 
all  felt  the  necessity  of  holding  the  slaves  in  bond 
age,  and  thus  a  society  of  sharp  class  distinctions, 
openly  acknowledged  by  all,  was  moulded  into  a  solid 
phalanx  by  the  proposed  invasion  of  the  South  and 
the  almost  certain  liberation  of  the  slaves.  More 
over,  the  churches  of  the  South,  including  the  Cath 
olics  in  New  Orleans,  Charleston,  and  elsewhere, 
were  now  at  the  height  of  their  power.  Planters, 
farmers,  and  the  so-called  "  poor  whites  "  acknowl 
edged  the  importance  of  religious  faith  and  disci 
pline  ;  and  the  leaders  of  the  churches,  from  the 
bishops  of  the  Episcopalians  to  the  humble  pastors 
of  negro  congregations,  freely  gave  their  blessings 
to  slavery  and  urged  their  membership  to  heroic 
sacrifice  for  the  common  cause.  Sermons  like  that  of 
Dr.  Palmer,  of  New  Orleans,  in  November,  1860, 
were  preached  all  over  the  South,  and  they  were  as 
effective  in  stirring  the  warlike  impulses  of  the  peo 
ple  as  the  fiery  addresses  of  the  most  enthusiastic 
statesmen. 

Although  there  was  a  unity  and  a  cooperation 
among  all  classes  of  people  from  Washington  City 
to  southwestern  Texas,  there  were  certain  areas  in 
which  volunteers,  even  during  the  early  days  of  ex 
citement,  were  not  readily  forthcoming.  In  the  pine 


THE   APPEAL   TO  ARMS  279 

woods  of  the  Carolinas  and  the  Gulf  States,  where 
nine  tenths  of  the  soil  was  still  covered  by  primeval 
forests,  and  among  the  high  mountains  of  Virginia, 
North  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Tennessee,  many  people 
resisted  the  authority  of  the  Confederacy  passively  or 
actively  from  the  beginning.  From  the  southern  Ap 
palachian  region  the  Union  armies  drew  at  least  200,- 
000  recruits,  and  in  certain  counties  of  western  North 
Carolina  and  eastern  Tennessee  more  soldiers  per  thou 
sand  of  the  population  volunteered  for  the  Federal 
service  than  could  be  found  in  the  most  enthusiastic 
communities  of  the  North.  Western  Virginia  re 
volted  in  1861,  and  in  1863  she  was  received  into 
the  Union  as  a  loyal  State,  in  spite  of  the  absence 
of  all  constitutional  authority  or  precedent.  Eastern 
Tennessee  might  have  pursued  the  same  course  if 
it  had  been  possible  for  President  Lincoln  to  lend 
military  assistance  at  the  proper  moment.  Except  in 
the  valley  and  southwestern  counties  of  Virginia, 
most  of  the  grain  and  cattle-producing  area  of  the 
South  was  indifferent  to  the  cause  of  the  Confeder 
acy.  This  was  a  serious  handicap,  for  troops  must 
be  stationed  in  many  localities  to  maintain  order,  and 
the  resistance  to  the  foraging  agents  of  the  Southern 
armies  frequently  became  serious.  From  the  summer 
of  1863  to  the  end  of  the  struggle  the  home  guards 
of  the  various  disaffected  districts  required  many 
men  who  might  otherwise  have  been  with  Lee  or 
Joseph  E.  Johnston. 

But  the  better  parts  of  the  South,  the  -tobacco  and 
cotton  belts,  with  their  annual  output  of  three  hun 
dred  millions'  worth  of  exportable  commodities,  their 


280         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

high-strung,  well-bred  gentry  accustomed  to  outdoor 
life  and  horseback  riding  and  devoted  to  the  idea  of 
local  autonomy  in  government,  were  behind  the  Con 
federate  movement.  The  people  had  been  better 
trained  in  their  local  militia  than  their  Northern 
brethren,  their  greatest  families  had  long  been  ac 
customed  to  send  cadets  to  West  Point,  and  in  sev 
eral  States  there  were  excellent  military  schools 
where  the  best  of  training  was  given  to  young  men 
who  looked  forward  with  a  vague  expectation  to  ca 
reers  in  the  army.  If  we  add  to  these  considerations 
the  fact  that  the  rural  aristocracy,  whether  seces 
sionist  or  unionist  in  politics  in  1860,  regarded  the 
movements  of  the  North  in  the  spring  of  1861  as 
ruthless  attacks  upon  their  ideals  and  their  homes, 
we  shall  understand  how  the  Confederates  were  able 
to  organize  a  powerful  and  efficient  army  so  early 
in  the  struggle. 

The  Confederate  seat  of  Government  was  removed 
in  May,  1861,  from  Montgomery  to  Richmond.  The 
old  Virginia  capital,  always  the  center  of  strong 
unionist  feelings,  became  the  scene  of  cabinet  meet 
ings,  of  sessions  of  Congress,  and  military  confer 
ences.  The  easy-going  tobacco  gentry  who  had 
grown  up  with  the  little  city  on  the  James  welcomed 
the  invasion  of  generals,  politicians,  and  army  con 
tractors,  and  saw  with  pleasure  the  population  swell 
from  some  twenty-five  thousand  to  a  hundred  thou 
sand  souls.  The  "  White  House  "  became  the  center 
of  a  society  which,  as  Mrs.  Pryor  and  others  insisted, 
was  really  aristocratic.  The  first  families  of  Virginia 
became  hosts  to  the  statesmen  who  had  gathered 


THE   APPEAL   TO  ARMS  281 

there  from  all  the  Southern  States ;  there  were 
"  heroes  from  the  wars"  to  grace  the  salons  of  Mrs. 
Stannard,  Mr.  William  H.  McFarland,  banker  to 
the  new  government,  and  others  who,  but  for  the 
disastrous  turn  of  the  conflict,  would  have  become 
well-known  figures  in  history.  The  social  life  which 
was  adorned  by  the  presence  of  Mrs.  Jefferson  Davis, 
Mrs.  James  Chesnut,  and  Mrs.  Joseph  E.  Johnston 
was,  however,  after  one  short  winter  of  pleasure  and 
buoyant  expectation,  overcast  with  sorrow  and  even 
scattered  abroad  by  the  close  approach  of  the  armies 
of  the  North,  the  hated  Yankees  who  had  not  been 
expected  to  fight. 

The  serious  and  all-absorbing  business  of  the 
South  was  therefore  to  repel  invasion.  Armies  rang 
ing  from  5000  to  15,000  troops  were  stationed  at 
Norfolk,  Williamsburg,  Fredericksburg,  northern 
Virginia,  Harper's  Ferry,  Cumberland  Gap,  Bowl 
ing  Green  and  Columbus,  Kentucky,  and  even  in 
Missouri.  General  A.  S.  Cooper,  of  New  Jersey, 
became  adjutant-general  and  the  senior  officer  in  the 
Confederate  Army ;  Robert  E.  Lee  organized  and 
drilled  the  Virginia  forces ;  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  his 
rival  in  the  old  United  States  Army,  commanded  at 
Harper's  Ferry ;  and  Beauregard,  the  hero  of  Fort 
Sumter,  was  at  the  head  of  the  army  which  was  ex 
pected  to  resist  and  defeat  the  first  invasion  from 
Washington.  Behind  these  various  gatherings  of 
soldiers  were  hundreds  of  thousands  of  others,  wait 
ing  to  be  supplied  with  arms  and  ready  to  learn 
the  ways  of  war.  Editors,  preachers,  and  orators 
heralded  with  unanimous  voice  the  new  nation,  and 


EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

predicted  speedy  recognition  by  the  powers  of  Europe 
and  a  permanent  peace  with  their  long-time  rivals. 
Three  months,  six  months,  or  a  year  were  the  vari 
ous  estimates  of  the  duration  of  the  war  for  inde 
pendence.  Some  planters  followed  the  counsel  of 
President  Davis  and  planted  corn  and  wheat  instead 
of  the  accustomed  cotton  and  tobacco,  in  order  to  be 
able  to  feed  their  armies  and  "  their  people,"  but 
others  were  so  certain  that  another  autumn  would 
reopen  the  channels  of  commerce  to  all  that  they 
continued  their  large  acreage  in  their  favorite  sta 
ples.  It  was  not  to  be  a  long  struggle  like  that  which 
Washington  had  led.  The  conditions  were  different. 
Both  England  and  France  would  intervene  when  the 
cotton  famine  began  to  press.  Even  so  sober  a  man 
as  General  Lee  expected  success  and  thought  of  his 
role  as  like  that  of  Washington,  who  was  now  the 
Southern  model  and  ideal.  Davis's  friends  also  spoke 
and  wrote  of  him  as  the  "second  Washington." 

Thus  filled  with  the  highest  hopes  and  reminded 
daily  of  the  heroic  traditions  of  the  former  revolu 
tion,  the  Southerners  began  their  battles.  President 
Lincoln,  loath  to  admit  that  war  was  upon  him,  called 
out  75,000  three  months'  men  when  the  news  of  Fort 
Sumter  reached  him.  Congress,  too,  was  called  in 
extra  session  for  July  4  to  devise  ways  and  means  of 
compelling  the  South  to  return  to  the  fold.  These 
warlike  acts,  to  those  who  did  not  understand  the  long 
sectional  rivalry,  were  supported  by  an  almost  unani 
mous  North.  The  Northwest,  led  by  Douglas,  was 
promp  to  support  their  first  real  President  and  to 
hasten  their  quota  of  volunteers  to  the  front.  In  the 


THE   APPEAL   TO  ARMS  283 

older  sections  of  the  East  the  latent  hostility  toward 
the  people  of  the  South  flamed  out  as  never  before, 
proclaiming  a  devotion  to  the  Union  and  to  the  ideals 
of  the  Fathers  which  had  widespread  effect.  Even 
in  the  great  cities,  where  the  prevailing  sentiment  in 
the  preceding  winter  had  been  for  peace  and  a  per 
manent  disruption  of  the  Union,  men  rallied  to  the 
national  standards  with  unexpected  enthusiasm.  The 
Astors,  Belmonts,  and  Drexels  raised  regiments  or 
offered  loans  to  the  Administration.  If  the  South 
was  united  and  ready  to  defend  their  homes,  the 
North  seemed  equally  united  upon  a  program  of  in 
vasion  and  subjection.  A  solid  South  had  begotten 
a  solid  North.  The  shells  which  burst  over  Fort 
Sumter  had  called  the  North  to  arms  as  effectively 
as  they  had  banished  the  hesitation  of  the  Southern 
border  States. 

An  army  of  invasion  gathered  rapidly  in  Wash 
ington,  seized  Arlington,  General  Lee's  ancient  fam 
ily  estate,  on  the  Virginia  shore  of  the  Potomac,  for 
a  drill  ground,  took  possession  of  recalcitrant  Mary 
land,  and  made  of  all  railroads  entering  the  capital 
the  highways  and  instruments  of  war.  Winfield  Scott, 
the  old  and  vacillating  general  of  the  regular  army, 
was  quickly  set  aside,  and  the  able  General  Irvin 
McDowell  took  his  place.  Thirty  thousand  troops 
moved  slowly  into  Virginia  under  the  pressure  of 
public  opinion  stimulated  by  newspaper  editors,  min 
isters  of  the  Gospel,  and  stiff-backed  Republicans, 
who,  like  similar  classes  in  the  South,  declared  that 
the  war  was  to  be  over  in  three  months.  Other 
armies  collected  at  Cincinnati  under  young  George 


284         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

B.  McClellan,  soon  to  be  major-general,  at  Louisville 
under  Don  C.  Buell,  and  at  St.  Louis  under  the  er 
ratic  John  C.  Fremont.  When  Congress  met,  all 
these  movements  were  quickly  ratified,  and  the  two 
sections  of  a  country  of  more  than  thirty  million 
people,  all  supposed  to  be  devotees  of  commerce, 
industry,  and  agriculture,  "worshipers  of  money,'' 
entered  with  unparalleled  eagerness  upon  a  war  which 
was  soon  to  surprise  and  even  appall  the  world.  What 
industry  lost  in  the  North  by  secession  of  the  South 
was  regained  in  the  manufacture  or  preparation  of 
military  supplies  for  soldiers  who  fought  the  South ; 
and  in  the  Confederacy  men  who  knew  little  of  in 
dustry  and  of  seafaring  soon  established  great  plants 
where  the  munitions  of  war  were  readily  made,  or 
they  turned  with  a  strange  facility  to  improvising 
gunboats  and  blockade  runners.  Within  a  year  or 
two  the  people  of  the  North  showed  the  most  bitter 
hatred  of  the  South  and  everything  Southern,  and  in 
the  South  women  sold  their  hair  for  the  common 
cause,  and  sent  their  gold  and  silver  ornaments  to  the 
Government  to  be  converted  into  implements  of  war. 
Such  results  could  hardly  have  been  the  outcome  of  a 
hasty  decision  on  either  side.  The  long-nursed  dislike 
of  the  people  of  each  section  now  became  a  consum 
ing  hatred  ;  it  was  a  mighty  struggle  for  the  mastery 
of  the  Government  which  had  been  founded  in  1787- 
89,  for  the  control  of  the  vast  territory  which  com 
posed  the  heart  of  North  America.  One  party  or  the 
other  must  be  vanquished,  one  section  or  the  other 
must  become  a  second  Ireland. 

On  July  20,  General  McDowell  attacked  the  army 


THE   APPEAL   TO   ARMS  285 

under  General  Beauregard  near  Centreville,  a  Vir 
ginia  village  to  the  northward  of  a  little  stream 
which  gave  its  name  to  the  battle  that  ensued,  — 
Pmll  Kun.  About  35,000  Northerners  made  up  the 
army  of  invasion  ;  Beauregard  commanded  less  than 
20,000,  but  Joseph  E.  Johnston  brought  his  army 
of  15,000  from  the  Valley  of  Virginia  in  time  to 
decide  the  fortunes  of  that  hot  summer  day.  After 
stout  fighting  on  both  sides  during  the  earlier  part 
of  the  onset,  these  fresh  troops  of  the  Valley  were 
seen  marching  into  action.  To  Union  eyes  the  15,000 
easily  appeared  to  be  30,000.  Panic  seized  men  and 
officers  alike,  and  a  stampede  for  Washington  and 
safer  ground  followed.  Arms,  provisions,  horses,  even, 
and  the  carriages  of  stiff-backed  Republican  Congress 
men,  who  had  left  their  posts  to  see  the  fun,  were  left 
upon  the  field  and  along  the  wayside  as  memorials  of 
the  first  battle.  At  the  close  of  the  day  Jefferson 
Davis,  Beauregard,  Johnston,  and  "  Stonewall "  Jack 
son,  who  won  his  proud  soubriquet  on  that  famous 
field,  held  a  conference  and  decided  not  to  follow 
the  Federals  to  Washington  that  evening.  On  the 
morrow  a  heavy  rain  fell  and  the  roads  of  northern 
Virginia  became  impassable  for  a  week.  The  de 
feated  forces  had  time  to  regain  their  composure 
while  the  people  of  both  sections  began  to  see  what 
war  meant. 

The  Southerners  rejoiced  and  celebrated,  even  re 
laxed  their  preparations,  thinking  their  valor  vastly 
superior  to  that  of  their  enemies.  President  Davis 
was  less  confident,  and  pressed  upon  his  Congress 
the  better  organization  of  the  armies,  whose  numbers 


286         EXPANSION  AND   CONFLICT 

now  mounted  to  400,000  men ;  he  sent  James  M. 
Mason  and  John  Slidell  as  commissioners  to  Europe, 
and  ordered  troops  under  Robert  E.  Lee  to  West 
Virginia  to  save  that  recalcitrant  region  to  Virginia 
and  the  Confederacy.  In  the  absence  of  a  revenue, 
and  already  shut  off  from  the  markets  of  both  the 
North  and  Europe,  the  Confederates  resorted  to  loans 
and  the  issue  of  paper  money  to  meet  the  enormous 
expenses  of  war.  The  Confederate  Government  bor 
rowed  hundreds  of  millions  from  the  planters,  and 
the  States  likewise  piled  up  debts  in  unprecedented 
fashion  in  maintenance  of  the  same  great  cause.  Of 
gold  and  silver  there  was  little ;  the  banks  had  long 
since  suspended  specie  payments,  but  increased  their 
issues  of  notes.  The  cotton  crop,  then  being  harvested 
by  the  negroes,  and  the  grain  and  cattle  of  the  hill 
country  were  the  chief  resources.  The  paper  money 
of  the  Government  was  paid  to  soldiers,  farmers,  and 
planters  for  their  services  and  supplies,  and  this  was 
given  back  to  the  Government  in  exchange  for  inter 
est-bearing  bonds  that  were  issued.  With  a  European 
market  for  the  planters'  products  the  system  might 
easily  have  been  successful ;  but  this  one  essential  to 
victory  failed,  or  waited  upon  military  success. 

The  first  general  election  came  on  in  the  late  au 
tumn.  Under  the  stimulus  of  the  victory  at  Manassas, 
or  Bull  Run,  Davis  and  Stephens  were  elected  Presi 
dent  and  Vice-President  without  opposition  for  terms 
of  six  years.  New  Senators  and  Representatives  were 
chosen,  generally  from  the  ranks  of  conservative  poli 
ticians,  for  the  sessions  of  the  regular  Confederate 
Congress,  which  was  to  supersede  the  provisional 


THE   APPEAL   TO   ARMS  287 

congress  and  government  on  Washington's  birthday, 
1862.  The  judiciary  of  the  Confederacy  was  regu 
larly  organized  except  as  to  the  Supreme  Court ;  the 
adjustments  of  national  and  state  relations  were  all 
rapidly  and  easily  made ;  while  the  selection  and 
appointment  of  high  officers  in  the  army  and  civil 
administration  went  steadily  on  at  Richmond,  under 
the  relief  from  military  pressure  which  the  success 
of  Beauregard  and  Johnston  in  northern  Virginia 
had  secured.  In  the  general  security  some  of  the 
ablest  officers  of  the  army,  especially  Joseph  E. 
Johnston,  felt  free  to  attack  the  President  in  the 
newspapers  because  of  the  failure  to  give  the  highest 
commands  according  to  rank  of  officers  in  the  former 
United  States  Army,  —  a  quarrel  which  was  destined 
to  have  a  fatal  influence  in  the  final  overthrow  of  the 
new  government.  There  was  also  an  attempt  to  fix 
upon  Davis  the  blame  for  not  capturing  Washington 
City  the  day  after  the  Bull  Run  debacle.  However, 
these  were  as  yet  but  ripples  of  discontent  which  only 
proved  the  general  confidence  of  the  people  in  their 
final  triumph. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

F.  E.  Chadwick's  The  Causes  of  the  Civil  War  (1906)  and  J.  K. 
Hosmer's  The  Appeal  to  Arms  (1906)  are  the  best  brief  and  recent 
accounts  of  the  events  of  1859  to  1862.  But  Rhodes,  McMaster, 
and  Schouler  cover  the  period  to  1876,  each  after  his  distinctive 
method.  John  C.  Ropes's  The  Story  of  the  Civil  War  (1894),  con 
tinued  by  W.  R.  Livermore,  treats  the  military  history  in  the  most 
critical  and  fair-minded  way,  though  Wood  and  Edmonds's  The 
Civil  War  in  the  United  States  (1905),  and  G.  P.  R.  Henderson's 
Stonewall  Jackson  and  the  American  Civil  War  (1900),  are  equally 
good,  if  somewhat  briefer. 


288        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Of  original  material  there  is  no  limit,  and  the  student  is  com 
pelled  to  find  his  way  through  the  uncharted  wilderness  of  evidence 
in  the  Rebellion  Records,  already  cited,  and  the  thousands  of  vol 
umes  of  memoirs  and  special  contemporary  narratives  of  which 
U.  S.  Grant's  Personal  Memoirs  (1886),  Joseph  E.  Johnston's 
Narrative  of  Military  Operations  (1874),  Nicolay  and  Hay's  Abra 
ham  Lincoln:  a  History  (1890),  and  Battles  and  Leaders  of  the  Civil 
War  (1887-89),  are  perhaps  the  most  important.  Almost  all  the 
officers  of  both  the  Union  and  Confederate  armies,  with  the  unique 
exception  of  General  Lee,  left  published  or  unpublished  narratives 
of  their  roles  in  the  great  struggle  which  help  to  clear  up  most 
disputed  episodes,  though  they  complicate  the  task  of  the  his 
torian. 

The  estimates  of  the  numbers  of  men  engaged  on  both  sides  by 
Ropes,  Rhodes,  and  especially  T.  L.  Livermore  in  his  Numbers  and 
Losses,  are  most  trustworthy,  though  this  is  a  subject  still  hotly 
controverted  in  both  North  and  South.  Each  of  the  great  bat 
tles  has  its  historian:  H.  V.  Boynton,  The  Battle  of  Chickamauga, 
and  Morris  Schaff,  The  Battle  of  the  Wilderness,  being  the  best 
examples. 


CHAPTER   XV 

ONE    NATION    OR    TWO? 

THE  distressing  news  of  Bull  Run  brought  home 
to  the  North  the  awful  realities  of  war.  Men  who 
had  all  along  distrusted  the  Republican  party  now 
denounced  a  war  waged  for  the  emancipation  of  the 
South's  slaves.  Both  the  President  and  Congress 

o 

formally  announced  that  it  was  a  struggle  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  Union  and  not  a  war  on  behalf 
of  the  slaves.  It  was  well  that  this  position  was 
taken,  else  the  North  might  have  broken  into  im 
potent  factions.  The  East  hated  the  South  and 
warred  upon  their  ancient  rivals,  the  planters ;  the 
border  States  owned  slaves,  disliked  the  Republican 
party,  and  feared  the  purposes  of  those  in  power; 
while  the  West  loved  the  Union,  held  the  negro  in 
contempt,  and  was  committed  to  the  party  in  power 
on  the  smallest  possible  margin. 

None  but  Lincoln  seemed  to  possess  the  tact  and 
the  ability  necessary  to  hold  together  these  dissolv 
ing  elements  of  a  country  never  yet  thoroughly 
united  ;  and  even  he  was  long  doubted  and  distrusted 
by  many  good  men.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  Douglas 
had  been,  until  his  death,  June  3,  1861,  his  right 
arm.  Douglas's  last  speeches  and  dying  words  urged 
upon  the  millions  of  his  followers  the  necessity  of 
giving  their  lives  to  the  cause  of  the  Union.  So  crit 
ical  was  the  situation  that  when  nominations  were 


290        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

made  for  elective  office  in  the  Middle  States  or  the 
West  in  1861,  the  Administration  party  took  pains 
to  disavow  its  former  attitude  and  put  forward  can 
didates  who  had  been  regular  Democrats,  thus  fol 
lowing  the  same  compromising  policy  which  Davis 
inaugurated  in  the  South.  Daniel  S.  Dickinson,  a 
member  of  the  old  Polk  and  Pierce  party  of  ruth 
less  expansion,  was  made  leader  of  the  Administra 
tion  forces  in  New  York  in  1861,  and  David  Tod,  a 
stanch  Douglas  man  in  1860,  was  elected  Governor 
of  Ohio  the  same  year  by  Republican  votes.  John 
C.  Fremont  was  removed  from  the  command  of 
the  Federal  army  in  St.  Louis  because  he  under 
took  to  emancipate  the  slaves  in  his  department. 
The  people  of  the  North  were  not  willing  to  invade 
the  sister  States  of  the  South  for  any  other  cause 
than  to  restore  the  Union.  Wealthy  bankers,  indus 
trial  leaders,  and  railway  magnates  might  be  kept 
together  on  a  platform  of  enlarging  the  area  of  their 
operations,  but  never  on  a  program  which  proposed 
the  confiscation  of  billions  of  dollars'  worth  of  prop 
erty,  which  the  slaves  represented.  In  this  hour  of 
trial  the  supreme  need  was  cooperation  and  union 
among  the  diverse  elements  of  the  North,  for  in 
1862  another  Congress  would  be  chosen,  and  if  party 
lines  were  suffered  to  be  drawn,  the  South  would 
certainly  gain  her  independence. 

With  this  Unionist  program  perfectly  understood, 
Lincoln  asked  Congress  for  400,000  men.  Congress 
gave  him  500,000.  A  second  wave  of  warlike  enthu 
siasm  swept  over  the  North,  and  men  enlisted  not  for 
three  months,  but  for  three  years.  The  zeal  and 


ONE   NATION  OR   TWO? 


291 


abandon  of  the  South  was  hardly  matched,  but  there 
was  no  lack  of  men  or  support.  With  a  few  excep 
tions  the  newspapers,  the  pulpits,  and  the  lecture 
platforms  urged  most  ardent  support  of  the  common 
cause.  But  the  more  difficult  problem  of  finding 
money  for  the  vast  armies  that  moved  upon  the  South 


One  Nation,  or  T 

I  |  The  Union 

i T  Doubtful 

pltmtia  Confederate  Statea 
,SCALE   OF,  MILES, 


0     100 


300 


500 


was  not  so  quickly  solved.  Secretary  Chase  reported 
the  expenditure  in  the  three  months  of  June,  July, 
and  August  of  a  hundred  millions  —  an  amount 
greater  far  than  the  total  national  debt.  Before  an 
other  three  months  had  passed  this  expenditure 
had  doubled,  and  the  Secretary  estimated  that 
$500,000,000  would  be  needed  before  the  end  of 
June,  1862  !  These  were  astounding  figures  to  a 
country  whose  normal  annual  income  was  about 
$50,000,000.  And  what  was  worse,  the  financial 
men  refused  to  take  government  bonds  at  par,  as 


292         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

they  had  done  during  the  war  with  Mexico,  although 
they  were  now  offered  interest  at  the  rate  of  six  to 
eight  per  cent.  The  country  had  recovered  from  the 
panic  of  1857,  and  as  business  activity  increased  and 
the  general  prosperity  became  certain,  it  was  more 
difficult  for  the  Government  to  borrow  money.  The 
suspension  of  specie  payments  by  all  the  banks  before 
the  end  of  the  year  did  not  mean  panic  or  severe 
economic  crisis,  as  had  hitherto  been  the  case ;  rather, 
a  change  from  metallic  to  paper  money.  Secretary 
Chase  was  told  by  New  York  leaders  in  December, 
1862,  that  government  bonds  bearing  six  per  cent 
interest  would  hardly  bring  sixty  cents  on  the  dollar. 
Yet  business  men  borrowed  money  at  four  per  cent 
and  the  wheels  of  industry  and  commerce  were  mov 
ing  at  full  speed.  Prosperity  in  the  North  was  thus 
almost  as  fatal  to  the  Union  as  adversity  in  the 
South  was  to  the  Confederacy.  Rather  than  adver 
tise  a  collapse  of  the  federal  credit  by  selling  bonds 
at  a  discount  of  twenty  to  forty  per  cent  the  guiding 
spirits  at  Washington  decided  to  issue  notes  as  legal 
tender  to  the  amount  of  8150,000,000,  increased  to 
$300,000,000  a  little  later.  Immediately,  bankers 
and  business  men  who  refused  to  take  bonds  pro 
tested  with  such  vigor  and  resolution  that  Chase 
and  Lincoln,  unlearned  in  the  ways  of  finance,  knew 
not  what  course  to  take.  To  sell  bonds  at  enormous 
discounts  and  high  rates  of  interest  was  bad ;  to  tax 
the  people  directly  for  the  needs  of  the.  Government 
would  have  ruined  the  party  in  power ;  and  to  issue 
fiat  money  was  equivalent  to  forcing  the  poor  to  lend 
what  the  rich  refused.  But  the  emergency  was  great. 


ONE   NATION   OR   TWO?  293 

It  was  decided  to  issue  and  float  "  greenbacks  " 
and  also  to  sell  bonds  in  unprecedented  numbers. 
Though  the  markets  of  the  world  were  open  to  the 
North  and  business  was  as  active  as  ever  in  the 
history  of  the  country,  the  Federal  Government  was 
thus  reduced,  like  the  Confederacy,  to  the  use  of 
paper  money,  and,  surprising  as  it  may  appear,  the 
securities  of  the  latter  sold  in  Europe  at  a  higher 
price  than  those  of  the  former.  Gold  and  silver  dis 
appeared  entirely  in  both  sections. 

But  the  eyes  of  the  public  were  fixed  on  military 
movements,  not  finance,  and  as  the  winter  of  1861-62 
wore  on  an  army  of  a  hundred  thousand  men  gathered 
around  Washington  for  the  second  invasion  of  Vir 
ginia.  George  B.  McClellan,  the  "  young  Napoleon,'7 
drilled  and  organized  the  raw  recruits  while  public 
opinion  began  to  urge  another  march  upon  Richmond. 
Other  armies  nearly  a  hundred  thousand  strong  spread 
over  Kentucky  and  threatened  Tennessee  at  Cum 
berland  Gap,  Bowling  Green,  and  Forts  Henry  and 
Donelson.  In  February  Ulysses  S.  Grant  saw  the 
strategic  importance  of  the  forts  on  the  Cumberland 
and  Tennessee  Rivers,  and  before  the  first  of  March 
he  had  captured  both,  and  the  whole  of  West  Ten 
nessee  lay  open  to  him.  Nashville  fell  as  he  moved 
up  the  Tennessee,  and  Commodore  Foote  opened  the 
Mississippi  River  almost  to  Vicksburg  during  the 
early  spring.  Meanwhile  Albert  Sidney  Johnston 
had  retreated  to  northern  Mississippi.  Finding  Grant 
in  a  weak  position  on  the  southern  bank  of  the  Ten 
nessee  near  Shiloh  Church,  he  hastily  gathered  his  dis 
couraged  troops  about  him  for  a  sudden  attack  upon 


294        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

the  invaders.  Grant  had  nearly  45,000  men  and  lie 
knew  that  General  Buell  was  only  a  few  miles  away 
with  37,000  more.  Johnston  had  40,000.  The  pur 
pose  of  the   Confederate  general  was  known  to  his 
men,  and  all  were  inspired  with  the  determination  of 
striking  a  blow  before  the  two  armies  of  the  enemy 
could  unite.  Johnston's  assistants  in  command  were 
Beauregard  and  Bragg,  both  able  and  experienced 
officers.  On  the  morning  of  April  6,  the  Confeder 
ates  fell   upon   Grant's    outposts   and    drove   them 
headlong  against  the  main  body.  Desperate  valor  was 
shown  in  the  ensuing  attack,  and  before  the  afternoon 
it  seemed   that  nothing  could  save  the  Union  army 
and  its  commander  from  complete  disaster.  The  river 
was  in  high  flood,  two  impassable  creeks  flanked  the 
Federals,  while  the  victorious  Confederates  held  the 
fourth  side  of  the  field.  At  two  o'clock  Johnston  fell 
mortally  wounded;  Beauregard  succeeded  to   com 
mand,  and  about  four  o'clock  the  attack  slackened ; 
at  six  it  ceased  altogether,  though  the  Union  forces 
were   demoralized   and   expecting    to  be    captured. 
Grant  was  saved.  With  the  support  of  Buell  at  hand 
he  attacked  Beauregard  on  the  morrow  and  regained 
some  of  his  lost  prestige.  The  "  promenade  "  up  the 
Tennessee  had  been  halted  ;  but  the  loss  of  Johnston 
was  equal  to  the  loss  of  an  army.  This  fighting  of 
South  and  West  was  of , the  most  desperate  charac 
ter,  for  Grant  lost  more  than  10,000  in  killed  and 
wounded,  while  Johnston  and  Beauregard  lost  9700. 
The  march  of  Grant  and  Buell  across  middle  and 
western  Tennessee  and  the  opening  of  the  Missis 
sippi  to  Memphis  was  accompanied  by  the  loss  to 


ONE    NATION   OR   TWO?  295 

the  Confederates  of  Missouri  and  a  part  of  Arkan 
sas.  Grant's  objective  in  the  summer  and  autumn 
of  1862  was  Yicksburg,  but  the  Confederates  held 
him  fast  in  the  neighborhood  of  Corinth,  Missis 
sippi.  Buell  withdrew  from  middle  Tennessee  in 
the  late  summer,  when  Bragg,  commander  of  a  sec 
ond  Confederate  army  in  the  West,  moved  through 
eastern  Tennessee  into  Kentucky,  threatening  Lex 
ington  and  Louisville.  But  Bragg  failed  after  some 
successes  in  September  to  carry  the  tide  of  war 
back  toward  the  Ohio,  and  he  was  followed  in  Oc 
tober  by  the  army  of  the  Ohio,  now  under  the 
command  of  General  W.  S.  Rosecrans,  toward  Mur 
freesboro,  Tennessee,  where  another  sanguinary 
battle  was  fought  on  the  last  day  of  December, 
1862.  Rosecrans  now  had  43,000  men,  Bragg 
38,000.  After  a  desperate  encounter  in  which  the 
honors  inclined  to  the  Confederate  side,  Bragg  with 
drew  toward  Chattanooga,  his  base  of  operations, 
and  Rosecrans  encamped  at  Murfreesboro.  The 
Federal  losses  in  this  engagement  were  more  than 
13,000,  the  Confederate  somewhat  over  9000,  and 
the  only  advantage  was  the  gaining  of  a  few  miles 
of  territory.  The  war  in  the  West  which  began  so 
brilliantly  for  the  Federals  at  Forts  Henry  and 
Donelson  seemed  to  have  come  to  a  halt.  Grant 
was  unable  to  penetrate  the  lower  South,  and  Rose 
crans  was  content  to  leave  Bragg  in  undisturbed 
possession  of  the  region  between  Murfreesboro  and 
Chattanooga. 

Meanwhile  the  eyes  of  the  two  warring  powers 
were   concentrated   on  the  operations   in  Virginia. 


296         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

McClellan  moved  in  March,  1862,  upon  Richmond 
by  way  of  the  Yorktowii  Peninsula,  a  swampy  wild 
region  over  which  it  was  difficult,  indeed,  to  move 
an  army.  He  commanded  125,000  men,  and  40,000 
more  were  in  the  neighborhood  of  Washington  to 
make  a  diversion  in  his  favor  in  case  of  necessity. 
Joseph  E.  Johnston,  who  had  held  chief  command 
in  Virginia  since  Bull  Run,  shifted  his  position 
promptly  from  northern  Virginia  to  Richmond  to 
meet  the  threatened  attack.  He  had  no  more  than 
55,000  men.  As  McClellan  worked  his  way  slowly 
up  the  peninsula  Johnston  fortified  his  position 
along  the  ridges  east  and  north  of  the  Confederate 
capital,  which  stood  on  the  hills  just  above  tide 
water.  From  Hanover  Court-House  to  Malvern 
Hill,  a  distance  of  some  twenty-five  miles,  the  two 
armies  confronted  each  other  in  irregular  lines  con 
forming  to  the  topography  of  the  region.  Late  in 
May,  Johnston  attacked  McClellan  on  the  Union 
right,  and  the  fighting  continued  two  or  three  days, 
now  at  one  .point,  now  at  another  of  the  long  lines. 
On  May  31,  in  the  battle  of  Fair  Oaks,  Johnston 
was  severely  wounded  and  the  command  devolved 
upon  Robert  E.  Lee,  whose  failure  to  hold  West 
Virginia  against  McClellan  during  the  preceding 
autumn  had  temporarily  eclipsed  his  growing  repu 
tation.  Lee's  management  of  his  forces  during  the 
early  days  of  his  new  command  was  faulty ;  but  be 
fore  the  23d  of  June  he  had  received  reinforcements 
from  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  which  brought  his 
total  almost  to  60,000 ;  and  he  relied  on  "  Stone 
wall  "  Jackson,  who  was  just  concluding  a  wonder- 


ONE   NATION   OR   TWO?  297 

f  ul  campaign  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  to  come  to 
his  assistance  with  his  corps  of  16,000.  But  Mc- 
Clellan  still  had  105,000  fairly  trained  soldiers,  and 
there  was  no  reason  to  doubt  that  a  second  Union 
army  was  forming  near  Alexandria.  It  was  a  critical 
moment. 

Meanwhile,  Jackson's  operations  in  the  Shenan- 
doah  Valley  had  so  startled  and  astounded  the 
Federals  that  he  was  able  to  march,  June  20-25, 
unobserved,  over  the  passes  of  the  Blue  Ridge 
Mountains  to  Lee's  assistance.  A  series  of  battles 
began  June  26  at  Mechanicsville  on  McClellan's 
right,  near  where  Johnston  had  fought.  But  the 
failure  of  Jackson  to  arrive  and  begin  the  attack, 
according  to  agreement,  caused  the  first  Confed 
erate  onset  to  fail,  with  heavy  losses  to  the  South. 
The  next  day,  however,  the  tide  turned  the  other 
way  and  Lee  routed  McClellan  at  Games'  Mill. 
McClellan  now  retreated  across  White  Oak  Swamp 
towards  Harrison's  Landing  on  the  James.  The 
weather  was  hot,  the  ground  soft  from  rains,  and 
the  underbrush  so' thick  and  tangled  that  men  could 
not  see  each  other  at  a  distance  of  ten  paces,  save 
in  the  narrow  roads  or  small  clearings.  Realizing 
the  difficulties  under  which  his  opponent  labored, 
Lee  ordered  hasty  pursuit,  and  ineffective  blows 
were  struck  at  Savage's  Station  and  in  White  Oak 
Swamp.  Jackson  again  failed  to  maintain  the  great 
reputation  he  had  won  in  the  Valley,  and  Magruder, 
Holmes,  and  Huger,  other  lieutenants  of  Lee,  not 
knowing  their  own  country  as  well  as  did  the  Fed 
erals,  suffered  their  commands  to  be  lost  in  the 


298         EXPANSION  AND   CONFLICT 

wilderness  and  thus  aided  McClellan  is  his  escape 
from  a  dangerous  situation.  On  July  1  the  retreat 
ing  Union  army  gathered,  still  devoted  to  its  com 
mander,  on  Malvern  Hill,  within  support  of  the 
Federal  gunboats  in  the  James  River  below.  The 
Confederates,  confident  and  expectant,  poured  out 
of  the  woods  from  every  direction,  formed  in  battle 
array,  and  charged  over  open  fields  and  rising 
ground  toward  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  great  guns 
which  had  been  dragged  for  weeks  through  the 
swamps  in  the  hope  of  just  such  an  opportunity. 
The  attempt  of  Lee  to  carry  this  impregnable  posi 
tion  lost  the  Confederates  as  many  brave  men  as  all 
the  other  six  days  of  unremitting  warfare.  McClel 
lan  held  his  own  till  night;  Lee  withdrew  to  the 
neighboring  thickets,  surprised  at  the  resolute 
strength  of  an  opponent  who  had  avoided  battle  at 
every  turn  since  June  26. 

The  week  of  fighting  and  scouring  the  woods  had 
cost  the  North  nearly  16,000  men ;  the  South,  20,000. 
The  retreat  on  July  2  to  Harrison's  Landing  was 
McClellan's  confession  of  failure,  which  sorely  dis 
tressed  his  superiors  in  Washington  and  greatly  de 
pressed  the  spirits  of  the  North.  Lee's  first  essay 
at  war  on  a  large  scale  had  saved  the  Confederate 
capital,  though  at  fearful  cost,  and  he  was  every 
where  regarded  as  a  great  general.  From  this  time 
Davis  and  the  Confederate  Government  gave  him 
the  fullest  confidence,  and  the  people  of  the  South 
came  to  think  of  him  as  almost  superhuman.  Though 
he  was  bold  in  action  and  even  reckless  of  human 
life,  his  soldiers  gave  him  an  obedience  and  a  rever- 


ONE   NATION    OR   TWO?  299 

ence  which  no  other  commander  in  American  history 
has  ever  received.  Jackson,  Longstreet,  and  D.  H. 
and  A.  P.  Hill  had  also  won  fame  in  this  baptism  of 
blood.  To  the  average  Southerner  the  outlook  was 
once  more  exceedingly  bright.  Richmond  breathed 
freely,  and  the  Government  bent  its  energies  to  the 
task  of  supplying  its  able  officers  with  men  and 
means. 

While  the  Federal  Government  was  deciding  what 
to  do  with  McClellan  and  his  army,  still  almost 
twice  as  large  as  Lee's,  the  Confederate  commander 
sent  Jackson  with  some  20,000  men  to  the  neigh 
borhood  of  Bull  Run,  where  the  commands  of  Mc 
Dowell,  Banks,  and  Fremont  had  been  united  to 
make  a  third  army  of  invasion.  General  John  Pope 
was  brought  from  successful  operations  in  the  West 
to  Washington,  where  Secretary  Edwin  M.  Stan- 
ton,  assuming  more  and  more  the  directing  authority 
of  the  Government,  prepared,  with  the  assistance  of 
Senator  Benjamin  F.  Wade,  a  proclamation  which 
Pope  was  to  distribute  among  the  troops.  "  I  come 
from  the  WTest,  where  we  have  always  seen  the  backs 
of  our  enemies,"  ran  this  remarkable  admonition  to 
Eastern  officers  and  men.  "  Let  us  look  before  us 
and  not  behind."  Most  of  the  50,000  men  who  were 
soon  to  meet  Jackson  and  Lee  resented  the  com 
parison  and  the  affront.  On  August  9  a  sharp  en 
counter  at  Cedar  Mountain  showed  how  resolute 
and  real  was  the  purpose  of  Lee  to  drive  this  army 
out  of  Virginia.  Wrhen  President  Lincoln  removed 
McClellan  and  ordered  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  in 
part  to  Washington,  in  part  to  Acquia  Creek,  near 


300        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Frederieksburg,  to  support  Pope,  and  gave  the  com 
mand  of  all  the  armies  of  the  East  to  General  H. 
W.  Halleck,  for  whom  Grant  had  won  high  reputa 
tion  earlier  in  the  year,  Lee  hastened  northward  to 
defeat  Pope  before  these  reinforcements  conld  arrive. 
The  Union  forces  north  of  Bull  Run  amounted  now 
to  nearly  75,000  men  ;  Lee  had  55,000,  but  there 
was  no  thought  of  delay.  On  the  29th  and  30th 
Pope  was  crushed  and  routed  completely  in  a  series 
of  maneuvers,  and  battles  which  have  been  pro 
nounced  the  most  masterly  in  the  whole  war.  For 
four  days  the  discouraged  and  baffled  troops  and 
officers  of  the  Union  retreated  or  ran  pell-mell  across 
the  northern  counties  of  Virginia  into  Washington, 

O  O  / 

to  the  dismay  of  Lincoln  arid  the  friends  of  the 
Federal  cause.  It  was  at  this  moment,  too,  that 
Bragg  was  advancing,  as  already  described,  into 
Kentucky  and  threatening  to  seize  Lexington  and 
Louisville.  It  was  a  dark  hour  to  the  patient  and 
patriotic  Lincoln,  who  had  never  dreamed  that  such 
catastrophes  could  be  the  result  of  his  reluctant 
decision,  in  early  April,  1861,  to  hold  Fort  Sumter. 
General  Halleck  proved  uncertain  and  dilatory ; 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  generally  dissatisfied 
and  clamoring  for  the  restoration  of  McClellan,  who, 
like  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  of  the  South,  was  always 
popular  with  his  men  ;  the  Cabinet,  too,  was  uncertain 
and  hopelessly  divided  in  its  counsels.  The  cause  of 
the  Union  was  exceedingly  doubtful  in  September, 
1862,  as  Lee  entered  Maryland,  publishing  abroad 
his  call  to  the  Southern  element  of  that  State  to  rise 
and  join  their  brethren  of  the  Confederacy.  Public 


ONE   NATION   OR   TWO?  301 

opinion  in  the  North  was  divided  and  depressed, 
The  abolitionists  of  the  East  were  pressing  every  day 
through  Sumner  and  Chase  for  a  proclamation  eman 
cipating  the  slaves,  which  might  have  driven  Mary 
land  and  Kentucky  into  the  arms  of  the  enemy ;  the 
Northwest  was  in  turmoil,  for  there  abolitionism  was  as 
unpopular  as  slavery  itself,  and  leading  men  declared 
that  it  was  a  war  for  the  Union,  for  a  great  common 
country,  not  a  struggle  to  overthrow  the  institutions 
of  the  South.  There  was  still  no  great  party,  sure  of 
a  majority  in  the  coming  elections,  upon  which  the 
President  could  rely,  and  the  loss  of  a  majority  in 
Congress  would  have  been  fatal. 

Under  these  circumstances  Lee,  Longstreet,  and 
Jackson  entered  Maryland  at  a  point  some  fifty  miles 
above  Washington,  with  their  army  enthusiastic  and 
self-confident  because  of  recent  victories.  It  seemed 
almost  certain  that  another  victory,  and  this  on  the 
soil  of  the  North,  would  secure  Confederate  recognition 
in  Europe.  Reluctantly  Lincoln  restored  McClellan 
to  the  command  of  the  Union  army  which  was  moving 
northwestward  to  confront  Lee.  An  accident,  one  of 
those  small  things  in  war  which  sometimes  determines 
the  fate  of  nations,  put  into  McClellan 's  hands  the 
orders  of  Lee  for  the  Maryland  campaign.  General 
D.  H.  Hill  dropped  his  copy  of  these  important  and 
highly  confidential  instructions  upon  the  ground  as 
he  was  breaking  camp  on  the  morning  of  the  12th 
of  September.  On  the  same  day  this  tell-tale  docu 
ment  was  handed  to  the  Federal  commander.  Almost 
a  third  of  Lee's  army  was  on  its  way  to  Harper's 
Ferry,  many  miles  to  the  west,  to  seize  that  post, 


302         EXPANSION  AND   CONFLICT 

which  McClellan  thought  had  already  been  evacuated. 
McClellan  began  to  press  upon  the  Confederates  as 
they  retired  from  their  advanced  position  to  the  valley 
of  Antietam  Creek.  South  Mountain,  a  spur  of  the 
Blue  Hi  dge,  lay  bet  ween  the  armies.  On  September  16, 
McClellan  crossed  the  passes  and  confronted  Lee,  who 
was  now  on  the  defensive.  A  most  sanguinary  battle 
followed  on  the  17th,  and  the  Confederates,  having 
suffered  losses  of  nearly  12,000  men,  retired  to  north 
ern  Virginia.  The  campaign  was  closed,  for  McClel 
lan  was  too  cautious  to  risk  a  second  attack,  and 
Lee  retired  to  a  safe  position  south  of  the  Potomac. 
The  consternation  of  the  North  subsided  and  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  gave  out  the  announcement  that  if 
war  continued  till  January  he  would  emancipate  the 
slaves  by  executive  order  in  all  the  States  which  at 
that  time  refused  to  recognize  the  Federal  authority. 

The  elections  which  came  in  October  and  Novem 
ber  following  ran  heavily  against  the  Administration. 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indi 
ana,  Illinois,  and  Wisconsin,  Republican  States  in 
1860,  went  Democratic.  Only  in  States  where  the 
war  upon  the  South,  as  the  ancient  enemy,  was  pop 
ular  did  the  Administration  receive  hearty  support. 
In  the  moderate  States  like  Pennsylvania  and  the 
border  States  like  Kentucky,  the  Republican  party 
had  practically  ceased  to  exist.  The  Emancipation 
Proclamation  had  served  to  emphasize  the  almost 
fatal  cleavage  in  Northern  public  opinion. 

But  the  fortunes  of  both  sides  depended  on  victory 
in  the  field  as  well  as  votes  in  Congress,  and  all  eyes 
turned  again  to  the  movements  of  Lee.  The  failure  of 


ONE   NATION   OR   TWO?  303 

McClellan  to  follow  Lee  and  deliver  battle  led  to  his 
second  removal  from  command.  Ambrose  E.  Burn- 
side,  a  corps  commander  who  had  done  good  work  at 
Antietam,  succeeded,  and  in  obedience  to  the  orders  of 
the  War  Department  moved  directly  upon  Richmond 
byway  of  Fredericksburg,  with  an  army  of  122,000. 
But  Lee  confronted  him  on  the  south  bank  of  the 
Rappahaimock,  and  though  his  forces  were  only  a 
little  more  than  half  as  strong,  there  was  no  uneasi 
ness  at  Confederate  headquarters.  On  the  12th  of 
December  Burnside  crossed  the  Rappahannock  and 
attacked  Lee,  who  held  the  formidable  hills  on  the 
southern  bank  of  that  stream.  Another  bloody  battle 
ensued.  After  a  vain  and  hopeless  sacrifice  of  12,000 
men,  Burnside  withdrew  to  the  northern  bank  of 
the  river.  The  active  fighting  of  1862  had  come  to  a 
close.  In  northern  Mississippi  Grant  and  Sherman  were 
blocked  ;  at  Murfreesboro,  Tennessee,  the  armies  of 
Rosecrans  and  Bragg  were  about  to  make  their  fruit 
less  onsets  already  mentioned,  and  in  Virginia  the 
Union  outlook  was  quite  as  dark  as  it  had  been  after 
the  first  unfortunate  trial  at  arms  in  July,  1861. 
Lincoln  thought  of  removing  Grant  because  of  the 
failure  of  the  campaign  in  northern  Mississippi,  but 
gave  him  another  opportunity ;  Burnside  resigned  a 
command  he  had  not  sought,  and  Joseph  Hooker  took 
up  the  difficult  problem  of  beating  Lee. 

At  Washington  the  deepest  gloom  prevailed.  On 
July  2, 1862,  before  the  news  of  McClellan's  failure 
to  capture  Richmond  had  reached  the  people,  a  call 
for  300,000  three-year  men  was  made.  Then  came  the 
disaster  of  Second  Manassas  and  the  invasion  of 


304         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

Maryland.  Recruiting  went  on  drearily  during  the 
fall,  when  most  signs  pointed  to  the  failure  of  all 
the  gigantic  efforts  to  maintain  the  Union.  The  writ 
of  habeas  corpus,  so  dear  to  Anglo-Saxons,  had  been 
frequently  suspended ;  arbitrary  arrests  were  made 
in  all  parts  of  the  North,  and  many  well-known 
men  were  held  in  military  and  other  prisons  without 
warrant  or  trial.  Stanton  and  Seward  with  the  ap 
proval  of  the  President  issued  orders  for  the  seizure 
of  men  at  night,  and  the  mysterious  disappearances 
of  public  men  in  places  where  opposition  had  been 
shown  served  to  warn  people  against  displeasing  their 
own  officers  at  the  capital.  The  cost  of  the  war  had 
mounted  to  $2,500,000  a  day,  while  the  gross  receipts 
of  the  Government  were  not  more  than  $600,000  a 
day.  When  the  time  came  to  put  into  force  the  Eman 
cipation  Proclamation,  the  people  were  in  greater 
doubt  than  ever  about  the  wisdom  of  the  move, 
and  Secretary  Seward  wrote  to  a  friend  condemning 
utterly  this  effort  to  raise  a  servile  war  in  the  South. 
The  letter  found  its  way  into  the  newspapers  and 
showed  once  more  the  cleavage  of  Northern  public 
opinion.  The  radical  East  approved,  the  nationalist 
West  disapproved,  and  business  men,  bankers,  mer 
chants,  and  manufacturers,  whom  Seward  best  repre 
sented,  went  on  their  indifferent  ways,  refusing  to 
lend  money  to  the  Government  save  on  usurious 
terms,  and  at  the  same  time  denouncing  its  policy  of 
paying  debts  by  issuing  irredeemable  paper.  Lincoln 
had  lost  the  confidence  of  the  public,  even  of  Con 
gress ;  but,  as  he  himself  said, no  other  man  possessed 
more  of  that  confidence.  An  honest  German  mer- 


ONE   NATION   OR   TWO?  305 

chant  wrote  home  to  friends  that  if  the  North  could 
only  exchange  officers  with  the  Confederates,  the  war 
would  be  over  in  a  few  weeks.  In  the  midst  of  the 
depression  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  issued  an 
other  $100,000,000  of  greenbacks  to  meet  pressing 
needs ;  and  to  fill  up  the  ranks  of  the  armies  a  Fed 
eral  conscript  law  was  enacted  in  March,! 86 3,  only  a 
little  less  drastic  than  the  Confederate  measure  which 
was  said  to  "  rob  both  the  cradle  and  the  grave." 

Under  these  circumstances  Hooker  moved  half 
heartedly  upon  Lee.  The  two  armies,  the  Union  out 
numbering  the  Confederate  more  than  two  to  one, 
met  in  the  dreary  and  almost  impenetrable  forest, 
southwest  of  Fredericksburg,  known  as  the  Wilder 
ness,  though  the  battle  which  followed  bears  the  name 
of  Chancellors ville.  For  five  days  the  bloody  work 
went  on,  with  the  result  that  Hooker  retired  beaten 
and  humiliated  before  his  enemy.  Lee  and  the  South 
had  also  lost  their  greatest  general,  Stonewall  Jack 
son,  and  the  people  of  the  South  were  feeling  to  the 
full  the  disasters  of  war.  But  Lee  gathered  his  forces 
from  Norfolk,  Petersburg,  and  Richmond,  every  regi 
ment  that  could  be  spared,  more  than  80,000  men, 
and  set  his  face  -once  more  toward  western  Maryland 
and  Pennsylvania,  where  he  confidently  expected 
to  wrest  a  peace  from  the  stubborn  North.  The  Army 
of  the  Potomac  moved  on  interior  lines  toward  Gettys 
burg,  leaving  some  regiments  in  Washington  against 
an  emergency.  The  people  of  Pennsylvania  and  New 
York  were  panic-struck ;  a  second  time  the  evils  of 
war  had  been  transferred  from  Southern  to  Northern 
territory.  Great  cities  have  not  been  famous  for  self- 


306         EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 

control  and  philosophy  when  their  banks  and  their 
rich  storehouses  have  been  threatened  with  ruin. 
Philadelphia  and  New  York  were  no  exceptions  to 
the  rule,  and  if  it  had  been  left  to  them  the  war 
would  have  been  brought  to  a  close  before  Lee 
crossed  the  Pennsylvania  border. 

Once  more  the  Union  commander  was  changed. 
Upon  the  modest  shoulders  of  General  George  Gor 
don  Meade  fell  the  heavy  responsibility  of  saving  the 
riches  of  the  Middle  States  and  the  cause  of  the 
Union,  for  all  felt  that  a  Confederate  victory  in 
the  heart  of  the  North  would  bring  the  tragedy  to  a 
close.  Lee  was  so  bold  and  confident  that  he  was 
hardly  more  cautious  in  the  disposition  of  his  troops 
than  he  had  been  when  fighting  on  his  own  soil. 
Meade  secured  a  strong  position  on  the  hills  about 
the  since  famous  village  of  Gettysburg,  and  awaited 
attack ;  he  had  somewhat  more  than  90,000  men, 
who  were,  however,  still  laboring  under  the  delusion 
that  Lee  was  invincible  and  that  their  commanders 
were  unequal  to  those  of  the  adversary.  Without 
waiting  for  the  return  of  his  cavalry  and  without 
trying,  like  Napoleon  at  Austerlitz,  to  entice  the 
Federals  away  from  their  fortifications,  General  Lee 
pressed  forward.  On  July  1  the  Confederates  gained 
some  advantage  in  the  fighting ;  on  the  second  day 
they  held  their  own  ;  but  on  the  third  day  they  at 
tempted,  somewhat  after  the  manner  of  Burnside  at 
Fredericksburg,  the  impossible,  and  the  best  army 
the  South  ever  had  was  hopelessly  beaten.  About 
30,000  of  their  brave  men  were  dead,  wounded,  or 
missing.  Meade  had  not  suffered  so  great  a  loss, 


ONE    NATION   OR   TWO?  307 

and  lie  had  saved  the  cause  of  his  Government.  After 
a  day  of  waiting  the  Confederate  army  took  up  its 
march  unmolested  toward  northern  Virginia.  While 
the  people  of  the  North  rejoiced  at  their  deliverance, 
the  news  came  that  Grant  had  captured  Vicksburg 
and  all  the  30,000  men  who  had  defended  that  im 
portant  point.  The  Mississippi  went  on  its  way 
"  unvexed  to  the  sea,"  as  Lincoln  said,  for  New 
Orleans  had  long  since  fallen  and  the  upper  river  had 
been  cleared  of  all  resistance.  At  only  one  point  on 
the  long  line  from  Washington  to  Vicksburg  had  the 
Confederates  held  their  own  —  Chattanooga,  whence 
Bragg  had  retreated  earlier  in  the  year  and  where 
the  next  great  battle  was  to  be  fought. 

Hastily  Davis  ordered  his  available  regiments  to 
Bragg,  who  held  the  mountain  ridges  south  of  Chat 
tanooga.  Lee,  who  felt  strong  enough  to  hold  Meade 
in  check  in  northern  Virginia,  sent  away  Longstreet 
with  his  veterans.  September  19,  Rosecrans  attacked 
Bragg  on  his  impregnable  hills,  and  after  two  days 
of  heroic  fighting  and  appalling  losses  he  retired 
to  the  city.  Bragg  had  won  a  victory  similar  in  every 
respect  to  that  which  crowned  Meade 's  efforts  at  Get 
tysburg.  Though  slow,  unpopular  with  officers  and 
men,  and  unimaginative,  he  soon  seized  the  strong 
points  on  the  river  above  and  below  the  city,  and 
Rosecrans  was  surrounded,  besieged,  for  the  single, 
almost  impassable  road  to  Nashville  and  the  North 
would  not  bear  the  burden  of  necessary  supplies. 
If  Bragg  had  proved  watchful  and  alert,  it  would 
have  been  only  a  matter  of  time  when  the  Federals 
would  have  been  driven  by  famine  to  surrender. 


308        EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

Mr.  Gamaliel  Bradford  has  published  some  extremely  interest 
ing  studies  of  the  war-time  leaders,  of  which,  Lee,  the  American 
(1912)  is  by  far  the  most  important,  though  his  Confederate  Por 
traits  (1914)  including  character  sketches  of  most  of  the  eminent 
Southern  generals,  offer  a  great  deal  that  is  suggestive.  In  volume 
iv  of  Mr.  Rhodes's  History  there  are  two  chapters  which  treat  of 
the  life  of  the  people  of  North  and  South  in  the  most  interesting 
manner.  In  addition  to  the  more  general  works  already  cited,  one 
may  turn  to  George  C.  Gorham's  Life  and  Public  Services  of  Edwin 
M.  Stanton  (1889);  George  H.  Haynes's  Charles  Sumner  in  Ameri 
can  Crises  biographies;  Henry  Cleveland's  Alexander  H.  Stephens 
in  Public  and  in  Private  (1866);  A.  B.  Hart's  Salmon  Portland 
Chate  in  American  Statesmen  series;  Frederic  Bancroft's  The  Life 
of  William  H.  Seward  (1900);  and  Carl  Schurz's  Reminiscences 
(1907-08);  H.  A.  Wise's  Seven  Decades  of  the  American  Union 
(1876) ;  and  J.  W.  DuBose's  The  Life  and  Times  of  William  L. 
Yanccy  (1892). 

The  diplomatic  history  of  the  war  will  be  found  in  J.  M.  Calla- 
han's  Diplomatic  History  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  (1901);  J.  W. 
Foster's  A  Century  of  American  Diplomacy  (1900);  Charles  Francis 
Adams's  Charles  Francis  Adams  (1900),  in  American  Statesmen 
series;  Charles  Francis  Adams's  Lee  at  Appomattox  (1909);  and 
Transatlantic  Solidarity  (1913);  and  Pierce  Butler's  Judah  P. 
Benjamin,  in  American  Crises  biographies. 

Of  contemporary  accounts  to  be  added  to  those  already  men 
tioned  are  W.  T.  Sherman's  Memoirs  of  General  W.  T.  Sherman 
(1875),  and  especially  the  Home  Letters  of  General  Sherman, 
edited  by  M.  A.  De Wolfe  Howe  (1909) ;  G.  B.  McClellan's  McClel- 
lans  Own  Story  (1887);  E.  A.  Pollard's  A  Southern  History  of  the 
War  (1866);  Horace  Greeley's  The  American  Conflict  (1864-67); 
and  Jefferson  Davis's  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederate  Government 
(1881). 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  COLLAPSE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY 

As  one  looks  to-day  over  the  sources  of  the  history 
of  the  great  Civil  War,  it  seems  plain  that  the  re 
sponsible  spokesmen  of  the  Confederacy  should  have 
made  overtures  to  the  North  for  peace  on  the  basis 
of  an  indissoluble  union  of  the  warring  sections  in 
the  autumn  of  1863.  But  the  Southern  leader  who 
proposed  reunion  at  that  time  would  have  been 
regarded  as  untrue  to  his  cause  or  unduly  timid. 
Neither  Jefferson  Davis  nor  General  Lee  had  any 
thought  of  surrender,  though  from  the  attitude  of 
representatives  of  the  United  States  it  was  plain  that 
an  offer  to  return  to  the  Union  would  have  been  met 
with  ample  guaranties  to  the  owners  of  slaves  and 
full  amnesty  to  those  who  had  brought  on  the  war. 
Alexander  Stephens  alone  foresaw  the  outcome  and 
began  now  to  ask  for  a  new  national  convention 
in  which  terms  of  restoration  and  permanent  union 
should  be  fixed.  Stephens  was,  however,  already  out 
of  harmony  with  President  Davis ;  and  the  State  of 
Georgia,  led  by  Joseph  E.  Brown,  the  Governor,  and 
the  Confederate  Vice-President  himself,  was  regarded 
by  loyal  Southerners  as  recalcitrant  and  therefore 
not  authorized  to  propose  solutions  of  the  problem. 
The  cup  of  Southern  defeat  and  humiliation  had  not 
been  drained  to  the  bottom. 

The  Confederacy  owed,  at  the  end  of  the  year 


310        EXPANSION   AND   CONFLICT 

1863,  $1,221,000,000  ;  the  State  Governments,  the 
counties  and  cities,  probably  owed  as  much  more. 
Paper  money,  the  only  medium  of  exchange,  was  fast 
giving  way  to  barter.  One  dollar  in  gold  was  worth 
twenty  dollars  in  Confederate  currency.  The  monthly 
wage  of  a  common  soldier  was  not  sufficient  to  buy 
a  bushel  of  wheat.  People  who  lived  in  the  cities 
converted  their  tiny  yards  into  vegetable  gardens ; 
the  planters  no  longer  produced  cotton  and  tobacco, 
but  supplies  for  "  their  people  "  and  for  the  armies. 
The  annual  export  of  cotton  fell  from  2,000,000 
bales  in  1860  to  less  than  200,000  in  1863,  and 
most  of  this  came  from  areas  under  Federal  control. 
The  yearly  returns  to  the  planters  from  foreign  mar 
kets  alone  had  fallen  from  the  huge  returns  of  1860 
to  almost  nothing  in  1863,  and  with  the  disappear 
ance  of  gold,  or  international  money,  from  the  South, 
the  Governments,  Confederate  and  State,  found  their 
systems  of  taxation  breaking  down.  Early  in  1864 
taxes  were  made  payable  in  corn,  bacon,  or  wheat, 
not  in  paper  money,  which  every  one  refused  to  ac 
cept  at  face  value.  Planters  and  farmers  great  and 
small  were  now  required  to  contribute  one  tenth  of 
their  crops  to  the  Government.  This  would  have 
given  to  the  armies  an  ample  supply,  but  the  rail 
roads  were  already  breaking  down,  while  wagons  and 
country  roads  were  also  unable  to  bear  the  unparal 
leled  burden.  It  was  a  difficult  situation.  The  States 
made  it  worse  by  resisting  the  authority  of  the  Con 
federacy  ;  while  the  Confederacy  was  unable  either 
to  raise  money  on  loans  or  gather  taxes  in  kind  from 
farmers  who  preferred  always  to  pay  in  "  lawful 


COLLAPSE   OF   THE   CONFEDERACY     311 

money."  The  Confederacy  was  getting  into  debt  be 
yond  all  chance  of  redemption,  and  the  States  were 
likewise  mortgaged  to  the  utmost  limit  of  their  credit 
before  the  end  of  the  year  1864. 

But  the  tax  law  of  1864  was  only  one  of  the  bur 
dens   under  which  Southerners,  who  had  never  ac 
customed  themselves  to  paying  taxes  in  any  large 
way,  groaned.  In  1862  General  Lee  had  urged  upon 
Davis  a  conscript  law  which  would  keep  his  ranks 
full.  Congress  grudgingly  enacted  the  required  legis 
lation,  and  later  more  drastic  laws  were  passed ;  but 
the  simple  people  who  occupied  the  remote  mountain 
sections  of  the  South  and  the  small  farmers  and  ten 
ants  of  the  sandy  ridges  or  piney  woods  responded 
slowly  when  confronted  by  the  officers  of  the  law. 
Thousands  positively  refused  service  in  the  armies 
and  resorted  to  the  dense  forests  or  swamps,  where 
they  were  fed  by  friends  and  neighbors  who  refused 
to  assist  the  government  recruiting  agents.    In  the 
mountains  of  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  and  Tennes 
see  these  people  were  so  numerous  that  the  presence 
of  troops  was  required  to  keep  up  the  semblance  of 
obedience  to  law.  Local  warfare  was  the  result  in 
many  places.    Unionists  who  had  not  been  able  to 
join  the  armies  of  the  United  States  assisted  those 
who  refused  to  serve  in  the  Confederate  ranks.    As 
time  went  on  thousands  of  deserters  joined  the  recal 
citrants  in  the  Southern  hills,  and  during  the  last 
year  of  the  war  it  was  a  serious  problem  of  State  and 
Confederate  authorities  what  to  do  with  these  people, 
who  now  numbered  quite  a  hundred  thousand  men. 
Resistance    to    tax-gatherers    and    to    recruiting 


312        EXPANSION  AND   CONFLICT 

officers,  and  the  despondency  which  followed  the 
disasters  of  1863  and  the  tightening  of  the  Federal 

O  O 

blockade,  led  to  dissatisfaction  and  even  resistance 
in  the  loyal  black  belts.  In  North  Carolina  a  peace 
movement,  led  by  an  able  newspaper  editor,  W.  W. 
Holden,  gained  the  sympathies  of  Governor  Vanes, 
who  had  never  liked  Jefferson  Davis  nor  really  sym 
pathized  with  the  cause  of  secession.  In  Virginia  the 
friends  of  John  B.  Floyd,  who  had  been  summarily 
dismissed  from  the  army  for  his  hasty  surrender  of 
Fort  Donelson  in  1862,  aided  by  the  followers  of 
John  M.  Daniel,  editor  of  the  Richmond  Examiner, 
did  what  they  could  to  embarrass  the  Confederate 
President.  The  Rhett  influence  in  South  Carolina 
and  the  long-standing  quarrel  of  Governor  Brown  of 
Georgia  with  Jefferson  Davis  still  further  weakened 
the  arm  of  Confederate  administration.  Even  William 
L.  Yancey,  the  most  fiery  of  the  secessionist  leaders 
of  1860,  devoted  all  his  eloquence  and  abilities,  from 
1861  to  the  time  of  his  death  in  1863,  to  attacking 
the  Government  of  his  own  making.  And  to  make 
matters  worse,  the  supreme  courts  of  North  Carolina 
and  Georgia  undertook  to  annul  the  conscript  law 
and  other  important  acts  of  the  Confederate  Con 
gress,  and  thus  inaugurated  a  war  of  the  judges 
which  seriously  undermined  the  prestige  and  the 
morale  of  the  Confederate  Government.  Confeder 
ate  officers  enrolled  men  for  the  army  only  to  have 
them  released  by  state  judges  supported  by  their 
respective  governors.  All  the  influence  and  abilities 
of  Lee  and  Davis  were  required  to  prevent  a  break 
down  in  the  spring  of  1864,  when  the  calls  for  more 


COLLAPSE   OF   THE   CONFEDERACY     313 

troops  and  additional  supplies  were  so  numerous  and 
pressing.  West  Virginia  was  gone,  Kentucky  and 
Missouri,  too,  were  wholly  within  the  Federal  lines ; 
and  most  of  Tennessee,  half  of  Mississippi,  and  nearly 


30- — 
The  Confederacy  in  18C3  _ 

f  I  The  tlnfcn 

Confederacy 
t=— — I  TerritoHes 


.SCALE  OF  MILES       I  ^j\ 

D     100          300  600    lift'      Longitude  Wait   /i)7* 


all  the  region  beyond  the  great  river  were  lost  to  the 
Richmond  Government.  New  Orleans  and  Norfolk 
were  once  more  parts  of  the  United  States,  while 
large  strips  of  territory  in  eastern  North  Carolina, 
South  Carolina,  and  Florida  were  held  in  subjection 
by  frowning  gunboats. 

A  little  cotton  found  its  way  through  the  belea 
guered  ports  of  Mobile,  Savannah,  Charleston,  and 
Wilmington  to  Europe,  and  brought  the  lucky  block 
ade  runners  and  their  owners  rich  returns.  But  trade 
was  so  small  and  the  dangers  of  capture  were  so 
many  that  few  could  look  with  any  real  hope  for  a 
return  of  prosperity  until  the  war  was  over.  Europe 


314        EXPANSION   AND    CONFLICT 

must  intervene  if  cotton  and  tobacco  and  sugar  were 
to  regain  their  kingly  state.  And  this  was  the  warmest 
wish  of  the  Confederate  chieftains.  When  the  battle 
of  Fredericksburg  was  fought,  all  the  world  thought 
that  the  desired  recognition  would  come  at  once. 
James  M.  Mason,  the  commissioner  to  England,  wrote 
home  that  a  large  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons 
was  willing  to  vote  for  acknowledging  Southern  in 
dependence,  and  Charles  Francis  Adams,  the  Minis 
ter  of  the  United  States,  was  of  the  same  opinion. 
Gladstone,  then  one  of  the  most  popular  members  of 
the  British  Cabinet,  and  a  majority  of  his  colleagues 
favored  the  South.  Palmerston  declared,  when  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  was  read  to  him,  that 
Lincoln  abolished  slavery  where  he  had  no  power  to 
do  so  and  protected  it  where  he  had  power  to  abolish 
it.  Of  the  million  voters  in  England  at  least  three 
fourths  seemed  ready  to  vote  for  Southern  recogni 
tion,  and  all  the  great  manufacturers,  the  powerful 
merchants,  the  country  gentry,  and  great  nobles 
were  openly  contemptuous  of  the  cause  and  policy 
of  the  North.  Carlyle  ridiculed  the  "  Yankees,"  and 
Dickens  made  fun  of  Lincoln,  Sumner,  Chase,  and 
the  rest.  It  was  apparently  only  a  matter  of  weeks 
before  Lord  Palmerston  would  ask  Parliament  to 
authorize  him  to  intervene  in  order  to  stop  the  "use 
less"  bloodshed  and  slaughter  of  the  war  between  the 
States. 

In  France  the  ruling  class,  the  bankers,  the  in 
dustrialists,  the  higher  clergy,  and  many  of  the  party 
of  free  trade  supported  Napoleon  III  in  his  well- 
known  friendliness  for  the  South.  Moreover,  the 


COLLAPSE   OF   THE   CONFEDERACY     315 

Emperor  was  promoting  a  scheme  to  build  for  his 
Austrian  friend,  Maximilian,  an  empire  in  Mexico, 
where  the  perennial  war  of  factions  was  hotly  raging'. 
Davis  might  aid  such  a  move  as  a  consideration  for 
recognition,  and  certainly  Seward  was  too  busy  with 
his  own  troubles  to  intervene  on  behalf  of  an  "  out 
worn  "  Monroe  Doctrine.  Slidell,  the  shrewd  Con 
federate  commissioner  to  France,  led  the  Emperor 
to  expect  Southern  support  of  his  scheme,  and  at  the 
same  time  borrowed  millions  of  dollars  in  gold  from 
rich  Paris  bankers  and  hurried  it  off  to  the  famishing 
Confederacy.  No  revolutionary  power  ever  had  a 
fairer  chance  of  winning  its  goal  than  did  that  of 
Davis  and  Lee  in  the  autumn  of  1862  and  winter 
of  1863. 

The  unexpected  often  happens.  While  Charles 
Francis  Adams  was  being  coldly  elbowed  out  of  the 
salons  of  an  unsympathetic  English  nobility,  and 
when  Confederate  bonds  were  selling  both  in  Lon 
don  and  Paris  at  or  near  par,  Secretary  Chase  sent 
Robert  J.  Walker,  the  former  Mississippi  repudiator 
and  successful  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  under  Polk, 
to  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  down  Con 
federate  credit  and  building  up  that  of  the  United 
States. 

The  commissioner  of  the  Treasury  Department 
began  the  publication  of  a  series  of  articles  on  the 
financial  page  of  the  London  Times  which  seemed 
to  show  that  Davis  had  been  responsible  for  the  re 
pudiation  of  a  large  issue  of  state  bonds,  many  of 
them  held  in  London,  in  1843.  All  that  Mason  and 
Slidell  could  do  did  not  remove  the  suspicion  that 


316        EXPANSION   AND   CONFLICT 

the  Confederate  President  would  "  repudiate"  again. 
Men  who  had  loaned  large  sums  of  money  to  Mis 
sissippi  could  not  be  made  to  understand  that  Walker 
himself  had  been  the  responsible  agent  of  Mississippi 
in  those  days.  From  the  beginning  of  this  unpleas 
ant  advertising  of  former  American  financiering,  in 
which  Northern  States  had  sinned  quite  as  flagrantly 
as  Southern,  Confederate  credit  in  Europe  declined. 
Her  bonds  were  soon  withdrawn  from  the  market. 
At  the  same  time  Walker  succeeded  in  borrowing 
$250,000,000  from  European  bankers,  and  thus  at 
a  critical  period  he  was  able  to  prop  the  declining 
fortunes  of  his  country.  To  say  that  Walker  de 
stroyed  the  credit  of  the  Confederacy  and  at  the 
same  time  restored  that  of  the  Union  would  be  an 
exaggeration.  But  his  services  were  of  incalculable 
value  to  the  nationalist  cause.  When,  therefore, 
Napoleon  asked  England  to  join  him  in  intervening 
between  the  warring  parties  of  the  United  States 
there  was  other  reason,  besides  the  strong  and  vigor 
ous  activity  of  Charles  Francis  Adams,  for  the  British 
Ministry  to  postpone  or  decline  cooperation. 

Thus  the  bright  Confederate  outlook  of  1862  had 
become  dark  in  May,  1864,  when  General  Grant, 
who  had  been  brought  from  the  field  of  his  brilliant 

O 

operations  in  the  West,  took  command  of  the  army 
with  which  Meade  had  expelled  Lee  from  Pennsyl 
vania.  But  conditions  were  not  encouraging  in  the 
North,  Lincoln's  popularity  was  still  in  eclipse. 
Congress  was  resentful  of  his  failures.  Charles  Sum- 
ner  was  denouncing  him  every  day  in  private  and 
opposing  him  in  public.  Secretary  Chase  was  using 


COLLAPSE   OF   THE    CONFEDERACY     317 

the  machinery  of  his  great  office  to  deprive  his  chief 
of  a  renomination.  The  radicals  of  the  East  were 
still  refusing  their  approval  of  a  policy  which  com 
promised  with  slavery  in  the  border  States,"  and  the 
Unionists  of  the  Northwest  were  resentful  toward  a 
President  who  was  making  war  upon  slavery.  The 
Democrats  of  the  North  were  apparently  stronger 
than  ever,  and  their  criticism  of  the  Government  for 
suspending  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  and  for  hun 
dreds  of  arbitrary  arrests  gave  conservative  men 
pause.  To  all  this  must  be  added  the  resistance  in 
1863  to  the  military  drafts,  the  riots,  the  extraordi 
nary  prosperity  of  business  men  which  made  recruit 
ing,  even  with  the  aid  of  laws  almost  as  drastic  as 
those  of  the  South,  almost  impossible.  The  cost  in 
bounties  to  nation,  state,  and  counties  of  one  enlist 
ment  in  1864  was  about  $1000  ;  and  when  a  regi 
ment  was  thus  made  up,  a  third  of  the  men  sometimes 
deserted  within  a  few  months  and  re  enlisted  under 
other  names,  thus  securing  a  second  or  a  third  series 
of  bounties. 

Still  the  success  of  the  Northern  cause  seemed  to 
depend  on  the  renomination  of  Lincoln,  for  any 
other  Republican  Unionist  would  certainly  be  de 
feated  by  the  Democrats,  who  were  fast  uniting 
upon  General  McClellan,  exceedingly  popular  with 
both  War  Democrats  and  those  who  had  opposed 
the  war  from  the  beginning.  If  the  outlook  in  the 
South  was  discouraging,  that  of  the  North  was  al 
most  as  depressing. 

With  public  opinion  keen,  critical,  and  watchful, 
the  great  duel  reopened  in  Virginia  and  Georgia  in 


318        EXPANSION   AND    CONFLICT 

May,  1864.  Grant  attacked  with  an  army  of  120,- 
000  men ;  Lee  returned  the  blow  with  a  force  of 
about  60,000  seasoned  and  resolute  soldiers.  From 
May  3  to  June  12  the  two  great  generals  fought  over 
the  tangled  thickets  and  sandy  ridges  which  extend 
from  the  Wilderness  to  Cold  Harbor  near  Richmond, 
where  McClellan  had  failed  in  1862.  Grant  failed 
in  every  attempt  to  defeat  his  foe,  and  he  lost  in 
that  short  period  about  54,000  brave  men  —  an 
army  almost  equal  in  numbers  to  that  which  they  op 
posed.  The  people  and  the  papers  of  the  North  were 
demanding  the  removal  of  their  last  general ;  United 
States  bonds  and  paper  money  were  a  drug  on  the 
stock  market ;  it  was  reported  that  Grant  was  drink 
ing  deeply.  Lincoln  knew  that  to  remove  his  gen 
eral  would  be  tantamount  to  surrender,  for  B.  F. 
Butler,  then  on  the  lower  James,  would  be  the  only 
and  last  resort,  and  Lee  would  make  short  work 
of  that  remarkable  commander.  There  was  a  little 
encouragement  in  the  fighting  of  Sherman  against 
Joseph  E.  Johnston,  who  was  yielding  more  and 
more  of  northern  Georgia  to  his  rival.  But  June 
and  July,  1864,  were  the  darkest  hours  of  the  Union 
cause  and  of  Lincoln,  its  champion. 

Lee  now  felt  himself  secure  in  his  position  near 
Malvern  Hill,  and  expected  daily  to  hear  of  the  re 
moval  of  his  antagonist.  But  Grant,  to  the  surprise 
of  all,  performed  the  greatest  feat  of  his  military 
career  by  safely  placing  all  his  army,  still  120,000 
strong,  on  the  south  side  of  the  James  River,  where 
there  were  no  intrenchments  and  no  other  obstacles 
to  their  marching  upon  Petersburg,  the  key  to  Rich- 


COLLAPSE   OF   THE   CONFEDERACY     319 

mond.  This  was  done  with  incredible  facility,  June 
16,  17,  and  18,  while  Lee  quietly  waited  for  the 
enemy  to  attack  him  once  more.  While  Lee  thus 
rested  on  his  arms,  Grant  carried  his  army  through 
the  open  country  east  of  Petersburg.  Too  late,  June 
18,  the  Confederate  commander  hastened  all  his 
forces  to  the  new  scene  of  war.  Grant  had  played 
an  incomparable  ruse,  and  the  Union  army  entered, 
with  returning  faith  in  its  leader,  upon  the  last  phase 
of  its  great  task  —  the  ruin  of  Lee. 

Meanwhile  General  Sherman,  with  a  force  of  80,- 
000,  had  been  driving  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  with 
50,000  men,  from  Dalton  in  northern  Georgia 
toward  Atlanta.  From  May  4  until  July  18  the  two 
armies  maneuvered  and  fought  —  each  seeking  with 
out  success  to  surprise  the  other.  On  the  17th  of 
July  Sherman  crossed  the  Chattahoochee  some 
twenty  miles  north  of  Atlanta.  Georgia  and  the 
cotton  belt  of  the  lower  South  were  in  a  panic. 
Davis,  never  quite  satisfied  with  Johnston's  opera 
tions,  yielded  to  the  clamors  of  Senators  and  Rep 
resentatives,  as  well  as  military  men,  and  removed 
the  general.  John  B.  Hood,  the  new  commander, 
began  at  once  a  series  of  battles  around  the  doomed 
city,  losing  in  every  encounter.  Atlanta  fell  on 
September  2.  Sherman  was  left  in  quiet  possession 
of  northern  Georgia,  while  the  Confederate  army 
marched  toward  Nashville  in  the  hope  of  forcing  a 
retreat  and  perhaps  of  regaining  Tennessee.  With 
Grant  at  Petersburg,  whose  fall  would  compel  the 
evacuation  of  Richmond,  and  Sherman  the  master 
of  Georgia,  for  such  was  the  meaning  of  Hood's 


320        EXPANSION  AND   CONFLICT 

movements,  the  days  of  the  Confederacy  seemed  to 
be  numbered. 

Before  these  military  successes  had  been  gained, 
the  leaders  of  the  Union  cause  were  compelled  to 
nominate  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  Sumner, 
Greeley,  William  Cullen  Bryant,  and  many  other 
men  of  great  influence  opposed  Lincoln's  renomina- 
tion.  A  convention  of  radical  Republicans  met  at 
Cleveland  during  the  last  days  of  May.  It  nomi 
nated  John  C.  Fremont  for  President.  But  the  reg 
ular  Republican  Convention  met  a  week  later  in 
Baltimore,  formally  disavowed  its  name,  and  as 
sumed  that  of  the  National  Union  party.  Its  chair 
man  was  Robert  J.  Breckin ridge,  a  Kentucky 
preacher  and  Unionist.  Lincoln  was  renominated 
without  opposition,  and,  as  a  bid  to  the  border 
States,  Andrew  Johnson,  Union  Democrat  of  Ten 
nessee,  was  nominated  for  Vice-President.  However, 
the  reverses  of  Grant  in  Virginia  weakened  the  po 
sition  of  the  Administration,  and  before  the  1st  of 
August  trusted  advisers  of  the  Government  tele 
graphed  :  "  The  apathy  of  the  public  mind  is  fear 
ful."  The  price  of  gold  ranged  during  the  summer 
from  200  to  285,  and  United  States  securities  sold 
at  less  than  half  their  face  value.  The  President 
was  compelled  to  order  a  draft  of  500,000  men  in 
July  ;  the  country  met  the  order  with  a  groan.  Con 
gress  asked  for  the  appointment  of  a  day  of  fasting 
and  penance,  and  Lincoln  set  the  first  Thursday  in 
August  as  a  "  day  of  national  humiliation  and  prayer." 
So  portentous  was  the  outlook  that  before  the  middle 
of  August  most  of  the  eminent  men  in  the  Union 


COLLAPSE   OF  THE   CONFEDERACY     321 

party  had  lost  all  heart.  Greeley  wrote,  "  Lincoln  is 
already  beaten."  A  committee  waited  on  the  Presi 
dent  to  ask  his  formal  withdrawal  from  the  canvass. 

Late  in  August,  when  the  Unionist  hopes  were  at 
their  lowest,  the  Democrats  met  in  Chicago.  Gov 
ernor  Seymour,  of  New  York,  Representatives  Pen- 
dleton,  of  Ohio,  Voorhees,  of  Indiana,  and  the  un 
popular  Clement  L.  Vallandigham  were  in  charge  of 
the  proceedings.  Southern  leaders  came  over  from 
Canada  and  even  representatives  of  the  Sons  of 
Liberty,  a  group  of  Northwesterners  who  were  re 
sisting  the  National  Administration,  were  partici 
pants  in  the  convention.  Vallandigham,  a  "  peace-at- 
any-price  "  man,  secured  the  passage  of  a  resolution 
which  declared  the  war  a  failure,  but  the  War  Demo 
crats  dictated  the  nomination  and  made  George  B. 
McClellan  the  candidate  of  the  party.  The  general, 
who  had  fought  some  of  the  great  battles  of  the 
war,  repudiated  the  Vallandigham  resolution,  but  ac 
cepted  the  proffered  leadership.  On  the  day  the  con 
vention  adjourned  it  seemed  clear  to  the  thoughtful 
men  of  the  country  that  the  Democrats  would  win 
the  election,  and  that  they  would  in  that  event  bring 
the  war  to  a  close  by  acknowledging  Southern  inde 
pendence. 

But  before  the  delegates  had  reached  their  homes, 
the  telegraph  announced  the  fall  of  Atlanta.  Com 
modore  Farragut  had  just  taken  Mobile  after  a  long 
and  heroic  struggle.  President  Lincoln,  a  masterful 
manipulator  of  popular  opinion,  now  called  upon  the 
country  to  assemble  in  their  churches  and  give  thanks 
to  God  for  the  splendid  victories  of  Sherman  and 


522        EXPANSION  AND   CONFLICT 

Farragut.  Early  in  September  General  Phil  Sheri 
dan  invaded  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  made  famous 
by  Jackson  in  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  won  a 
decisive  victory  at  Winchester.  Before  the  end  of 
the  month  he  had  burned  thousands  of  barns,  slaugh 
tered  many  thousands  of  cattle,  and  destroyed  the 
newly  harvested  grain  in  all  that  rich  region.  His 
terse  remark  that  a  crow  could  not  cross  the  Valley 
without  taking  with  him  his  provisions  received  wide 
spread  applause,  and  showed  what  a  desperate  char 
acter  the  war  had  taken.  Sherman,  too,  took  up  his 
march  through  the  rich  black  belt  of  Georgia,  de 
stroying  everything  that  came  within  his  reach.  The 
people  of  the  North  took  heart,  especially  the  stiff- 
backed  Republicans  who  during  the  two  years  pre 
ceding  had  found  little  to  approve  in  the  measures 
of  the  Government.  Sumner,  who  had  called  Lincoln 
the  American  Louis  XVI ;  Thaddeus  Stevens,  who 
had  declared  that  he  knew  only  one  Lincoln  man  in 
the  House  of  Representatives ;  Horace  Greeley,  Sec 
retary  Chase,  and  even  Governor  Andrew  of  Massa 
chusetts,  all  united  now  to  praise  the  President  and 
urge  his  cause  before  the  country.  The  last  great 
crisis  of  the  war  in  the  North  had  been  passed.  A 
decisive  victory  at  the  polls  was  the  verdict  of  the 
people,  and  the  homely,  honest,  and  kindly  Lincoln 
was  commissioned  to  bring  the  war  to  a  conclusion 
and  then  to  reconstruct  the  Union. 

The  South  observed  movements  in  the  North  now 
with  hopeful,  now  with  regretful,  scrutiny.  As  a  des 
perate  stroke  Davis  had  sent  Jacob  Thompson  to 
Canada  to  assist  in  the  release  of  Confederate  pris- 


COLLAPSE   OF   THE   CONFEDERACY     323 

oners  and  to  stir  up  the  Sons  of  Liberty  to  rise 
against  the  Federal  Government.  In  October  raiding 
parties  were  sent  into  New  England,  and  an  effort 
was  made  to  set  fire  to  New  York  City  in  retaliation 
for  the  destruction  of  Southern  property  by  order 
of  Federal  generals.  These  efforts  proved  abortive, 
perhaps  adding  many  votes  to  the  majority  with 
which  Lincoln  was  reflected.  And  when  the  Con 
federate  Congress  reassembled  in  November  the  for 
tunes  of  the  South  were  recognized  as  almost  past 
remedy.  Georgia  did  not  rise  to  overwhelm  Slier, 
man  ;  the  supplies  painfully  collected  in  thousands  of 
depots  could  not  be  carried  to  Lee's  army  in  Peters 
burg  ;  the  railroads  were  almost  useless,  and  starva 
tion  confronted  those  who  lived  in  the  larger  towns. 
Only  a  great  and  overwhelming  victory  over  Grant 
could  save  the  South,  and  that  seemed  impossible 
when  thousands  of  Confederate  soldiers  had  deserted 
their  standards.  With  40,000  men  it  was  not  likely 
that  Lee  could  raise  the  siege  of  Petersburg  or 
capture  any  large  part  of  Grant's  army  of  nearly 
140,000. 

In  the  hope  of  filling  the  thin  ranks  of  the  South 
ern  armies,  President  Davis  recommended  to  Con 
gress  the  enlistment  of  the  blacks;  and  to  secure 
foreign  recognition,  he  sent  Duncan  F.  Kenner  to 
Europe  to  offer  emancipation  of  the  slaves.  But 
Congress  regarded  these  moves  with  ill-concealed 
contempt  and  offered  counter-solutions.  Alexander 
Stephens,  the  Vice-President,  led  a  movement  to  im 
peach  Davis.  Powerful  influences  in  Virginia  sup 
ported  Stephens  ;  in  North  Carolina,  opposition  to 


324        EXPANSION   AND    CONFLICT 

the  Confederate  authorities  had  been  carried  so  far 
that  such  a  proposal  was  regarded  with  approval. 
The  Rhett  party  in  South  Carolina  and  the  Joseph 
E.  Brown  following  in  Georgia  were  all  ready  to  fol 
low  Stephens.  A  large  section  of  public  opinion  had 
in  fact  been  prepared  in  all  these  States  for  such  a 
plan.  A  committee  of  Congress  was  formed  and  Wil 
liam  C.  Rives  was  sent  to  General  Lee  to  inquire  if 
he  would  take  charge  of  the  affairs  of  the  Confeder 
acy  as  sole  dictator.  Lee  declined  the  dubious  honor, 
and  Congress,  not  knowing  what  else  to  do,  under 
took  in  early  January,  1865,  to  carry  out  the  recom 
mendations  of  the  President. 

By  the  end  of  December,  1864,  General  Sherman 
had  captured  Savannah,  and  was  ready  to  begin  his 
march  northward  to  support  Grant.  On  the  suggestion 
of  Montgomery  Blair,  father  of  Postmaster-General 
Blair,  a  conference  was  arranged  with  the  Federal 
authorities,  to  take  place  on  a  United  States  steamer 
in  Hampton  Roads.  Lincoln  and  Seward  thus  met, 
on  February  3,  Alexander  Stephens,  former  United 
States  Judge  Campbell,  and  Senator  R.  M.  T. 
Hunter,  all  identified  with  the  Confederate  peace 
party.  Satisfactory  terms  could  not  be  agreed  upon 
and  the  renewal  of  the  conflict  was  ordered.  As  the 
commissioners  passed  through  the  lines,  the  news  of 
their  failure  was  conveyed  to  both  armies,  and  these 
brave  soldiers  of  many  campaigns,  having  long  since 
learned  to  respect  each  other,  wept  aloud.  The  fail 
ure  of  these  negotiations  confirmed  Davis  in  his  posi 
tion  and  he  now  made  one  more  appeal  to  the  people 
of  the  South  to  save  their  cause  by  a  popular  upris- 


COLLAPSE   OF   THE   CONFEDERACY     325 

ing.  Stephens  and  the  rest  lent  their  support  to  the 
call ;  but  it  was  all  in  vain,  for  the  sands  of  the  Con 
federacy  were  almost  run.  General  Sherman  with 
60,000  men  was  marching  through  South  Carolina. 
Columbia  was  laid  in  ashes  on  the  night  of  Febru 
ary  17,  and  the  naked  chimneys  of  the  cotton  belt 
from  Atlanta  to  middle  South  Carolina  marked  the 
course  of  the  Federal  army.  The  people  of  North 
Carolina  trembled  at  the  approach  of  the  victorious 
enemy.  Joseph  E.  Johnston  was  finally  restored  to 
the  command  of  the  remnants  of  his  former  army 
and  the  local  militia  which  undertook  to  delay  the 
progress  of  the  Federal  forces.  Well-to-do  families 
fled  to  places  of  refuge  ;  horses  and  cattle  were  driven 
to  the  best  hiding-places  that  could  be  found  ;  the 
silver  plate  and  the  little  gold  that  remained  among 
the  people  were  buried  under  woodpiles  or  deserted 
houses.  The  negroes  awaited  with  stolid  curiosity  the 
approach  of  the  "  Yankees,"  who  were  by  this  time 
vaguely  recognized  as  the  "  deliverers  "  ;  while  the 
poor  whites  were  thankful  that  their  poverty  for  once 
proved  a  blessing. 

In  February  the  Confederate  Congress  offered  a 
certain  number  of  slaves  their  liberty  on  condition 
of  their  fighting  for  Southern  independence ;  but  it 
was  too  late  for  any  test  of  the  radical  policy.  The 
new  commissioner  to  Europe  had  hardly  reached 
London  before  the  collapse  of  his  Government  was 
seen  to  be  imminent.  The  debts  of  the  Confederate, 
state,  and  city  governments  of  the  South  had  grown 
so  rapidly  that  no  one  knew  just  what  they  were ; 
the  armies  of  Lee  and  Johnston  were  forced  to  forage 


326        EXPANSION   AND    CONFLICT 

upon  the  country  nearest  at  hand.  Soldiers  were 
barefoot,  half-naked,  and  dispirited.  Grant  pressed 
steadily  upon  Lee  at  Petersburg,  Sheridan  approached 
Lee's  rear  from  Lynchburg,  Virginia,  and  B.  F.  But 
ler,  with  40,000  men,  threatened  Richmond  from  the 
lower  James  River.  To  escape  the  toils  of  the  enemy, 
Lee  decided  to  retreat  toward  the  west.  Jefferson 
Davis  received  the  dispatch  which  told  of  Lee's  new 
purpose  and  advised  the  evacuation  of  the  capital 
about  noon  on  April  2.  It  was  Sunday,  and  the  peo 
ple  were  at  church.  Rapidly  the  fateful  news  spread. 
An  indescribable  scene  followed.  Men,  women,  and 
children  hastened  out  of  the  doomed  city  with  the 
little  clothing  they  could  carry  in  their  hands,  or 
begged  the  owners  of  carts  and  wagons  to  come  to 
their  assistance.  Thousands  thus  sought  to  escape 
the  avenger,  while  the  high  officials  of  the  Govern 
ment  and  their  families  went  away  on  the  last  train. 
Documents,  private  correspondence,  stores  of  all  sorts, 
tobacco,  and  other  property  were  burned  to  prevent 
their  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  hated  enemy. 
Early  Monday  morning  the  city  was  deserted  save 
by  certain  hangers-on,  men  and  women,  white  and 
black,  who  hoped  to  pick  up  something  from  the 
wreckage  of  their  neighbors'  fortunes.  The  local  gov 
ernment  ordered  the  thousands  of  barrels  of  whiskey, 
still  in  the  bar-rooms,  emptied  into  the  streets.  Peo 
ple  drank  from  the  gutters,  and  drunkenness  soon 
added  to  the  difficulties  of  the  situation.  Federal 
troops  entered  the  city,  already  in  flames,  and  before 
nine  o'clock  the  Union  colors  flew  from  the  flagpole 
of  the  ancient  capital  of  Virginia. 


COLLAPSE   OF   THE    CONFEDERACY     327 

Davis  and  his  Cabinet  escaped  to  Danville,  Virginia, 
where  they  remained  until  the  news  of  Lee's  sur 
render  at  Appornattox  reached  them  on  April  10, 
when  they  retreated  toward  Charlotte,  North  Caro 
lina.  Lee  had  seen  the  inevitable,  and  on  April  9, 
near  the  little  village  of  Appomattox,  he  asked 


pt);jtjjt[fl    Regions 
•which  surrendered  with 
Lee  and  Johnston  April  1866 
,  SCALE  OF  MILES. 

0     100          300 


Grant  for  terms.  The  Union  commander  was  gener 
ous,  and  allowed  the  28,000  heroic  Confederates  to 
return  to  their  homes,  giving  only  their  word  of 
honor  that  they  would  keep  the  peace  in  the  future. 
A  few  days  later  near  Durham,  North  Carolina, 
Johnston  surrendered  to  Sherman  on  similar  terms 
to  those  which  Grant  had  given  Lee.  The  President 
and  members  of  the  defunct  government  of  the  Con 
federate  States  of  America  hastened  on  to  Georgia, 
where  Davis  was  captured  on  May  10  and  sent  to 
Fortress  Monroe  as  a  state  prisoner.  Other  forces  of 


328        EXPANSION   AND   CONFLICT 

the  South,  scattered  over  the  wide  area  of  their  deso 
late  country,  surrendered  during  the  month  of  May ; 
and  most  people  turned  to  cultivation  of  their  crops  in 
the  hope  that  a  bountiful  nature  might  restore  some 
what  their  broken  fortunes.  The  bitter  cup  had  been 
drained.  The  cause  of  the  planters  had  gone  down 
in  irretrievable  disaster.  For  forty  years  they  had 
contended  with  their  rivals  of  the  North,  and  having 
staked  all  on  the  wager  of  battle  they  had  lost.  Just 
four  years  before  they  had  entered  with  unsurpassed 
zeal  and  enthusiasm  upon  the  gigantic  task  of  win 
ning  their  independence.  They  had  made  the  greatest 
fight  in  history  up  to  that  time,  lost  the  flower  of 
their  manhood  and  wealth  untold.  They  now  renewed 
once  and  for  all  time  their  allegiance  to  the  Union 
which  had  up  to  that  time  been  an  experiment,  a 
government  of  uncertain  powers.  More  than  three 
hundred  thousand  lives  and  not  less  than  four  bil 
lions  of  dollars  had  been  sacrificed  in  the  fight  of  the 
South.  The  planter  culture,  the  semi-feudalism  of  the 
"old  South,"  was  annihilated,  while  the  industrial 
and  financial  system  of  the  East  was  triumphant. 
The  cost  to  the  North  had  been  six  hundred  thou 
sand  lives  and  an  expense  to  the  govenments,  state 
and  national,  of  at  least  five  billion  dollars.  But  the 
East  was  the  mistress  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
social  and  economic  ideals  of  that  section  were  to  be 
stamped  permanently  upon  the  country. 


COLLAPSE  OF  THE   CONFEDERACY     329 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

J.  K.  Hosmer,  The  Outcome  of  the  Civil  War  (1906),  in  American 
Nation  Series;  J.  A.  Woodburn,  The  Life  of  Thaddeus  Stevens 
(1913;)  PI  P.  Oberholtzer,  Jay  Cooke,  Financier  of  the  Civil  War 
(1907);  J.  C.  Schwab,  The  Confederate  States,  A  Financial  and  In 
dustrial  History  (1901);  E.  D.  File,  Social  and  Industrial  Conditions 
in  the  North  During  the  Civil  War  (1910),  W.  F.  Fox,  Regimental 
Losses  in  the  American  Civil  War  (1889). 

Of  special  sectional  value  is  W.  D.  Foulke's  The  Life  of  Oliver 
P.  Morton  (1899).  Henry  Wilson's  The  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave 
Power  (1872-77) ;  A.  H.  Stephens's  A  Constitutional  View  of  the 
Late  War  Between  the  States  (1868-70)  are  typical  of  many  others. 
Some  of  the  best  writers  on  the  life  and  ideals  of  the  old  South  are 
Mrs.  Roger  A.  Pry  or,  Reminiscences  of  Peace  and  War  (1906),  and 
My  Day  (1911);  Mrs.  James  Chesnut,  A  Diary  from  Dixie  (1905); 
Mrs.  Clement  C.  Clay,  A  Belle  of  the  Sixties  (1904) ;  and  Mrs. 
Myrta  L.  Avery,  Dixie  after  the  War  (1906).  Mrs.  Jefferson  Davis's 
A  Memoir  of  Jefferson  Davis  (1890)  is  rather  personal  and  profuse, 
but  always  more  important  than  the  more  pretentious  work  of  her 
husband,  Jefferson  Davis,  in  his  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederate 
Government,  already  mentioned. 

A  rare  source  book  for  the  South  is  J.  B.  Jones's  A  Rebel  War 
Clerk's  Diary  (1866),  and  an  even  more  important  one  for  the 
North  is  Gideon  Welles's  Diary  (1911).  Edward  McPherson's 
Political  History  of  the  United  States  During  the  Great  Rebellion 
(1865);  William  McDonald's  Select  Statutes  and  Other  Documents 
Illustrative  of  the  History  of  the  United  States,  1861-98  (1903) ;  J.  D. 
Richardson's  Compilation  of  the  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Con 
federacy  (1905);  and  Appleton's  Annual  Cyclopedia  and  Register, 
1862-1903,  give  the  most  important  official  documents  and  full 
accounts  of  public  events  as  they  occurred. 


INDEX 


Abolitionists,  societies  started, 
163;  theories  and  aims,  164; 
petitions  in  House,  165;  pre 
paring  for  Republican  party, 
166;  more  in  politics,  170;  and 
Wilmot  Proviso,  170;  in  1850, 
176. 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  fears 
English  intervention,  314, 
315,  316. 

Adams,  John,  19. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  coalition 
with  Clay,  1,  2,  3,  4;  support 
in  1828,  14,  15,  17;  popular 
and  electoral  votes,  18;  un 
popular  in  Southwest,  21 ;  and 
Georgia,  21,  39,  55,  56;  in 
House,  66;  for  Bank,  68,  70, 
72,  74,  84;  attacking  Van 
Buren,  96-105,  107,  108,  109; 
and  petitions  on  slavery,  119, 
126;  for  secession,  127,  164, 
165;  denounces  Mexican  War, 
157;  anti-slavery  leader,  164; 
address  on  taxes,  167,  242, 
252. 

Agassiz,  Alexander,  225. 

Agassiz,  Louis,  naturalist,  225. 

Agriculture,  methods  of,  211. 

Alabama,  and  Indians,  8;  im 
migration  to,  13;  population 
(1830,  1840),  13,  90;  for  Jack 
son,  72;  being  filled  up,  89, 
90;  for  Van  Buren,  111;  "Slav 
ery  a  blessing,"  119;  and  Wil 
mot  Proviso,  171,  264;  seces 
sion  of,  271. 

Albany  Journal,  friendly  to  Con 
federacy,  272. 

Alcott,  Amos  Bronson,  225. 

Alien  and  Sedition  Laws,  161. 


Allen,  William,  friendly  to  Cal- 
houn,  120;  expansionist,  149. 

Allston,  sculptor,  54. 

Amendments,  on  presidential 
term,  appointment  of  mem 
bers  of  Congress,  limiting 
Supreme  Court,  16. 

American  Fur  Company,  35. 

American  National  Academy  of 
Science,  225. 

American  party.  See  Know- 
Nothing  party. 

American  Revolution,  47,  84; 
debt  paid,  99. 

American  System,  Clay's,  67, 
74,  109;  to  be  carried  out, 
114;  laid  aside,  145. 

Anderson,  Major  Robert,  com 
manding  at  Fort  Sumter, 
273. 

Andrew,  Governor,  of  Massa 
chusetts,  supports  Lincoln, 
322. 

Antietam,  battle  of,  302. 

Appomattox,  Lee  surrenders  at, 
327. 

Arkansas,  in  cotton  belt,  12; 
for  Van  Buren,  111;  for  Paci 
fic  Railroad,  233;  secession  of, 
275. 

Art,  American,  in  1860,  225. 

Ashburton,  Lord,  Minister  to 
United  States,  123;  Webster- 
Ashburton  Treaty,  123,  124, 
125. 

Astor,  John  Jacob,  fur  trade, 
35. 

Atchison,  David,  expansionist, 
150;  pro-slavery  leader,  238. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  founded,  227. 

Austin,  Stephen,  in  Texas,  120. 


11 


INDEX 


Bache,  Alexander  Dallas,  sci 
entist,  224. 

Baldwin,  Joseph  G.,  227. 

Baltimore,  Maryland,  for  Ad 
ams,  15,  41,  46,  48;  news 
papers  for  Bank,  79;  Demo 
cratic  Convention  of  1844, 
128;  wheat  market,  133;  sub- 
treasury  at,  151;  Democratic 
Convention  of  1848,  172,  187. 

Baltimore  and  Ohio  Canal,  46. 

Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad, 
192. 

Bancroft,  George,  in  Folk's 
Cabinet,  149. 

Bank,  Second  National,  45; 
and  Jackson,  60,  65,  66,  67; 
and  Clay,  67;  bill  for  re- 
charter,  67;  Biddle,  president, 
67;  sentiment  for  re-charter, 
68;  Jackson's  veto,  69;  in 
campaign  of  1832,  70;  and 
Jackson,  77;  creditor  of  mem 
bers  of  Congress,  78;  news 
paper  support  of,  79;  gov 
ernment  deposits  withheld, 
79;  fighting  Jackson  and  the 
people,  80;  defeated,  82;  de 
cline  in  power,  83;  and  French 
claims,  85;  out  of  politics,  91; 
under  Pennsylvania  charter, 
98;  European  stockholders, 
99,  103,  107. 

Banks,  in  United  States,  capital, 
45;  men  in  control,  47;  bank 
ing  area,  47;  state  banks  and 
Jackson,  78,  79;  expansion  of 
credit,  98;  increase  of  mem 
bers,  98;  panic  of  1837,  102; 
suspend  specie  payment,  102; 
New  York  laws,  105;  state, 
151;  of  New  York,  189;  of 
Confederacy,  286. 

Banks,  N.  P.,  253,  299. 

Baptists,  in  West,  33;  in  South, 
143;  and  slavery,  143,  163;  in 
crease  in  membership,  145;  in 
South,  218;  clergy  of  high 


character,  220;  members 
(1860),  220;  and  slavery,  221; 
educational  institutions,  222. 

Barbecues,  209,  212. 

Barbour,  James,  17. 

Baring  Brothers  of  London,  and 
American  stocks,  99. 

Barry,  W.  T.,  Postmaster-Gen 
eral,  58. 

Bates,  Edward,  presidential  tim 
ber,  257,  262,  263. 

Beauregard,  General  P.  G.  T., 
and  Fort  Sumter,  274,  276, 
281;  in  battle  of  Bull  Run, 
285;  in  battle  of  Shiloh,  294. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  219. 

Bell,  John,  for  President,  261. 

Belmont,  August,  258. 

Benton,  Thomas  H.,  against 
Adams,  16;  for  preemption 
law,  16,  60,  65;  against  Flori 
da  Treaty,  16;  imperialist,  25; 
for  free  homesteads,  27,  30, 
32;  Foot  Resolution,  60;  land 
program  defeated,  65,  75,  82, 
90,  102,  105,  108,  109;  sup 
porting  Tyler,  115,  126;  Ore 
gon,  127,  129;  Texas  and  Ore 
gon,  132,  147,  149,  150;  for 
commander-in-chief  in  Mexi 
co,  155;  and  California,  175; 
and  crisis  of  1850,  175,  242. 

Berrien,  John  M.,  Attorney- 
General,  58. 

Biddle,  Nicholas,  president  of 
Second  National  Bank,  67, 
70;  and  Jackson,  77;  policy 
for  Bank,  78;  control  of  poli 
ticians  and  newspapers,  78; 
fighting  Jackson  and  people, 
79;  defeated,  82;  policy 
changed,  83,  112. 

Birney,  James  G.,  anti-slavery 
worker,  119,  161. 

Black  Hawk,  87. 

Black  Warrior,  trouble  with 
Spain,  234. 

Blair,  Frank  P.,  58. 


INDEX 


in 


Blair,  Montgomery,  324. 

Bonds,  United  States,  291,  293; 
Confederate  in  Europe,  293. 

Border  States,  Republican  party, 
302. 

Boston,  financial  center,  45,  46, 
48;  shipping  and  Hayne,  48; 
Transcendental  Club,  52;  phi 
losophy  and  religious  reform, 
52,  84,  129;  alliance  with 
South,  162,  193,  202,  205; 
clergy  and  slavery,  222. 

Bragg,  General  Braxton,  in 
battle  of  Shitoh,  294;  in  Ken 
tucky,  295,  300;  battle  of 
Murfreesboro,  295;  withdraws 
to  Chattanooga,  295,  303;  re 
inforced,  307;  beats  Rose- 
crans,  307;  character,  307. 

Branch,  John,  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  58. 

Breckinridge,  John  C.,  for  Vice- 
President,  245;  for  President, 
261. 

Breese,  Sidney,  friend  of  Cal- 
houn,  120. 

Brinkerhoff,  Jacob,  and  Wilmot 
Proviso,  169. 

Brooks,  Preston,  assault  on 
Sumner,  245. 

Brown,  John,  in  Kansas,  249; 
raid  into  Virginia,  258;  cap 
ture  and  execution,  259. 

Brown,  Governor,  Joseph  E.,  of 
Georgia,  distrusted  by  Con 
federates,  309;  opposed  to 
Davis,  312,  324. 

Bryant,  William  Cullen,  and 
New  York  Evening  Post,  53; 
against  Lincoln,  320. 

Buchanan,  James,  Secretary  of 
State,  148;  and  Oregon,  149; 
for  all  Mexico,  157;  Minister 
to  England,  234;  Ostend  Man 
ifesto,  235;  Democratic  nom 
inee  for  President,  245; 
elected,  246;  slights  Douglas, 
247;  Mexico  and  Cuba,  247; 


Kansas  question,  249;  Le- 
compton  Constitution,  253; 
Douglas  opposes,  253;  op 
poses  Douglas,  256,  265,  268; 
and  secession,  270. 

Buell,  Don  C.,  at  Louisville, 
284;  in  battle  of  Shiloh,  294; 
across  Tennessee,  294;  open 
ing  the  Mississippi,  294. 

Buona  Vista,  battle  of,  155. 

Bull  Run,  first  battle  of,  285; 
second  battle  of,  300. 

Burnside,  Ambrose  E.,  given 
command  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  303;  loses  at  Fred- 
ericksburg,  303;  resignation, 
303. 

Business,  prosperous  in  North 
during  Civil  War,  292. 

Butler,  General  B.  F.,  318,  326. 

Butler,  Pierce,  abused  by  Sum 
ner,  245. 

Calhoun,  John  C.,  4,  5;  Nation 
alist,  5;  Pennsylvania  and,  5; 
against  tariff,  6,  66,  68;  alli 
ance  with  Jackson,  6;  strong 
in  Virginia,  11,  16;  and  Jack 
son's  first  Cabinet,  21;  true  to 
West,  30;  powerless  against 
Jackson,  37,  39,  52,  54,  58,  60, 
61,  62;  break  with  Jackson, 
63,  64,  67;  and  Van  Buren,  64, 
68;  defied  by  Clay,  67;  and 
Bank,  68,  82;  Nullification, 
71, 72, 75;  isolated  in  1832, 73; 
and  compromise  of  1833,  74; 
and  Force  Bill,  74;  defeated 
and  isolated,  82,  84,  91;  hos 
tile  to  Jackson,  92;  support 
ing  Van  Buren,  94,  108,  112; 
for  Independent  Treasury, 
104;  for  Texas,  105,  107,  121, 
126,  147;  supporting  Tyler, 
115, 116;  retirement,  117;  and 
Clay  reconciled,  117;  candi 
dacy  for  President,  117;  on 
slavery,  119;  character,  119; 


IV 


INDEX 


Secretary  of  State,  127;  and 
Walker,  129;  for  Polk,  130; 
Texas  Treaty,  130;  Presidency 
promised  to,  131,  132;  Uni 
tarian,  143;  and  sectionalism, 
145;  and  Polk,  148;  and  Ore 
gon,  149,  150,  152;  and  all 
Mexico,  158;  and  abolition 
agitation,  165;  and  com 
promise  of  1850,  176,  178;  de 
mands  for  slavery,  178;  death, 
180,  242,  243;  doctrine  of,  and 
Dred  Scott  case,  248,  263. 

California,  Tyler  for,  125,  131, 
132,  152,  154;  occupied  by 
United  States,  154;  gold  dis 
covered,  174;  Taylor  for  ad 
mitting,  176,  199,  232;  for 
Pacific  Railroad,  233;  for  Bu 
chanan,  246. 

Cameron,  Simon,  257,  262,  263. 

Campbell,  Judge,  of  Alabama, 
Confederate  Commissioner, 
324. 

Campbellites,  Calvinistic,  218, 
222. 

Canada,  revolt  and  American 
aid,  105,  120,  122,  153. 

Canals,  constructed  in  West,  90; 
speculation,  91,  92. 

Carey  and  Lea,  Philadelphia, 
publishing  activities,  53. 

Caroline,  the,  affair  of,  with 
England,  105,  120,  123. 

Cartwright,  Peter,  salary,  31. 

Cass,  Lewis,  15,  25;  Secretary 
of  War,  65;  Oregon  and  Texas, 
132;  expansionist,  150,  157, 
158;  for  President,  172;  Ni 
cholson  letter,  172;  defeat, 
173;  and  crisis  of  1850,  176. 

Catholics,  216;  and  slavery,  221. 

Cerro  Gordo,  battle  of,  155. 

Chancellorsville,  battle  of,  305. 

Chandler,  Zachary,  241;  un 
compromising,  273. 

Channing,  William  Ellery,  52. 

Charleston,   S.C.,   53,   54;   and 


abolition  mail,  165;  spring  re 
sort,  214;  blockade-running 
from,  313. 

Chase,  Salmon  P.,  for  Wilmot 
Proviso,  171,  184,  202; 
against  Kansas-Nebraska 
Bill,  240,  241,  242;  and  Kan 
sas,  245;  and  Ohio,  251,  257, 
262,  265;  uncompromising, 
273;  Secretary  of  Treasury, 
291;  difficulties,  292;  for  im 
mediate  emancipation,  301, 
315;  working  against  Lincoln, 
316;  supports  Lincoln,  322. 

Cherokees.   See  Indians. 

Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal,  46. 

Chestnut,  Mrs.  James,  215,  281. 

Chicago,  187,  192,  193,  202;  and 
Doug-las,  204;  growth,  204; 
Pacific  Railroad  idea,  204, 
210. 

Chicago,  Burlington  andQuincy 
Railroad,  192. 

Chickasaws.   See  Indians. 

Children,  in  factories,  210. 

China,  Tyler  and,  126. 

Choate,  Rufus,  became  Demo 
crat,  246. 

Choctaws.    See  Indians. 

Christian  Church.  See  Campbel 
lites. 

Churches,  support,  50;  strict 
ness  moderated,  50,  143;  and 
slavery,  143,  146,  163;  mem 
bers  and  capacity,  in  1860, 
220;  of  South,  for  slavery  and 
war,  278. 

Churubusco,  battle  of,  156. 

Cincinnati,  pork-packing  and 
manufacturing,  35,  202,  210. 

Cities,  wretched  industrial  life, 
210. 

Civil  service,  Van  Buren  and 
spoils  system,  96. 

Clay,  Henry,  coalition  with 
Adams,  2;  Secretary  of  State, 
3,  14,  15,  16,  17,  21;  barely 
reflected  to  the  Senate  in 


INDEX 


1831,  22;  fast  life,  22;  duelist, 
32,  33;  Mechanic's  Library, 
35;  powerless  against  Jack 
son,  37,  55,  56,  62,  63,  64,  76; 
defies  South,  66;  and  Bank, 
67,  70,  79;  for  Presidency,  67, 
69;  and  Jackson's  Bank 
Veto,  70;  and  Kentucky,  70, 
71;  and  Compromise  of  1833, 
73,  74,  75;  alliance  with  Cal- 
houn,  74;  debtor  of  Bank,  79, 
80;  fight  to  restore  deposits, 
81,  82,  84,  91;  for  distribu 
tion  of  surplus,  92,  93;  at 
tacking  Van  Buren,  96,  107; 
and  Texas,  105,  127;  Eastern 
tour,  108, 109;  not  nominated, 
101,  112;  program,  114;  and 
Tyler,  115;  retirement  in 
1841,  117;  reconciled  to  Cal- 
houn,  117;  candidacy  for 
Presidency,  117;  Raleigh  let 
ter,  128;  and  Polk,  130,  145, 
147,  152;  on  Mexican  Treaty, 
157,  167;  snubbed,  171,  172; 
in  Senate,  176;  Compromise 
of  1850,  176;  death,  181,  242. 
Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty,  173. 
Cobb,  Howell,  adviser  of  Bu 
chanan,  247. 
Colleges,  in  West,  34. 
Colorado,  199. 
Columbia  Valley,  immigration 

to,  127. 

Confederacy,  Southern  organ 
ized,  271;  agents  to  Europe 
276;  enthusiasm,  276;  prep 
arations  for  war,  276;  aris 
tocracy  united,  279;  Rich 
mond  capital,  280;  expect; 
foreign  intervention,  282;  cur 
rency  and  finances,  286;  neec 
of  European  market,  286 
regular  government,  286;  dis 
sension,  287;  bonds  in  Europe 
294;  European  recognition 
imminent,  301;  not  ready  fo 
reunion,  309;  debt  and  cur 


rency  in  1864,  310;  taxation, 
310;  internal  dissension,  310; 
resistance  to  conscript  laws, 
311;  area  controlled  in  1854, 
313;  credit  ruined  in  Europe, 
315;  collapse,  324-28. 
Congregational  Church,  in  Mas 
sachusetts,  15;  members  in 
1860,  220;  and  abolition,  222; 
Yale,  a  center,  222. 
Connecticut,  suffrage  extended, 
Church  and  State  separated, 
14;  population,  39;  cotton  and 
wool  manufacturing,  42,  54. 
Conscription,  Federal  and  Con 
federate,  305;  resistance  to 
Confederate,  311;  opposition 
to  Federal,  317. 
bnstitution  of  the  United 
States,  amendments  to  limit 
term  of  Presidents,  appoint 
ment  of  members  of  Congress, 
and  powers  of  Supreme  Court, 
16;  States  and  bills  of  credit, 
99. 

Cooper,  General  A.  S.,  281. 
Cooper,  James  Fenimore,  53. 
Cooper,    Thomas,    resignation, 

142. 

Cotton,  and  politics  in  South 
Carolina,  4;  planters  against 
tariff,  5,  66,  75;  expansion  and 
politics,  11;  decline  in  price, 
12;  great  wealth  of  planters, 
13;  in  Southwest,  13;  exports, 
29,  36,  42,  313;  New  Orleans 
market,  36;  manufacture  in 
New  England,  42,  46,  132, 
133,  134,  137,  138;  prices, 
186,  194. 

Courts,  for  vested  interests,  51; 

national,  power  of,  51;  county 

in  old  South,  38;  planters  in 

federal,  138. 

Crawford,     Thomas,     sculptor, 

225. 

Crawford,  William  H.,  Jackson 
and  Seminole  affair,  2,  4,  8, 64. 


VI 


INDEX 


Creeks.   See  Indians. 

Crittenden,  John  J.,  171,  255, 
273. 

Crockett,  David,  79. 

Cuba,  198;  purchase  proposed, 
232,  233;  Ostend  Manifesto, 
234,  247. 

Currency.  See  Money,  Paper 
money. 

Cushing,  Caleb,  50,  150;  Attor 
ney-General,  231. 

Dallas,  George  M.,  for  Vice- 
President,  130;  elected,  131. 

Dana,  R.  H.,  secession,  253. 

Daniel,  John  M.,  opposed  to 
Davis,  312. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  Oregon,  Texas, 
132;  expansionist,  150,  157, 
176;  retired  after  1850,  181, 
214;  Secretary  of  War,  231; 
and  Pacific  Railroad,  233, 
234,  236;  for  Kansas-Ne 
braska  Bill,  239;  Senate  lead 
er,  247;  and  Douglas,  254, 
258;  against  secession,  269; 
President  of  Confederacy, 
271;  and  Fort  Sumter,  274; 
advice  to  plant  food  crops, 
282;  "second  Washington," 
282,  285;  reflected,  286;  and 
J.  E.  Johnston,  287;  trust  in 
Lee,  298;  unyielding,  309;  op 
position  to,  312,  315,  322; 
recommends  negro  enlistment, 
323;  opposed  by  Congress, 
323;  impeachment  threat 
ened,  323;  offers  Europe 
emancipation,  323;  last  appeal 
to  South,  324;  escape  to  Dan 
ville,  327;  captured  and  im 
prisoned,  328. 

Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  Jacksonians,  24;  and  New 
England,  24;  in  Democratic 
platform  of  1840,  110;  aboli 
tionists  and,  162,  262. 

Delaware,  for  Adams,  14,  18. 


Democracy,  decline,  3;  doomed 
in  Virginia,  North  Carolina, 
South  Carolina,  11;  retarded 
by  cotton  expansion,  11  ; 
Whigs  and  Democrats,  109; 
flooded  in  South,  214;  in  New 
England,  215. 

Democratic  party,  67;  defied  by 
Clay,  66;  first  national  con 
vention,  68;  and  Van  Buren, 
104,  107,  109,  110;  Baltimore 
Convention  of  1844,  129;  for 
Texas,  147,  161;  convention 
of  1848,  172,  182;  Franklin 
Pierce,  182;  compromise  a 
finality,  182;  lose  Northwest, 
242;  Southern,  and  pro-slav 
ery,  243;  Convention  of  1856, 
245;  Buchanan  and  Breckin- 
ridge,  205;  and  Douglas,  257, 
258;  Charleston  Convention 
of  1860,  260;  split,  261;  wins 
seven  Republican  States,  302; 
strong  in  North,  317;  Conven 
tion  of  1864,  321. 

Derby  Bank,  of  Connecticut, 
robs  depositors,  44. 

De  Veaux,  James,  painter,  54. 

Dew,  Thomas  R.,  on  slavery, 
118,  145. 

Dickinson,  Daniel  S.,  Lincoln 
leader,  290. 

District  of  Columbia,  petitions 
on  slavery  in,  165;  to  abolish 
slave-trading,  178. 

Dix,  John  A.,  150,  157. 

Doak,  Samuel,  33. 

Dobbin,  James  C.,  Secretary 
of  Navy,  232. 

Donaldson,  Fort,  Grant  cap 
tures,  293. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  Oregon 
and  Texas,  132;  expansionists, 
150,  172;  and  crisis  of  1850, 
176,  206;  understood  West, 
202;  land  for  railroads,  203; 
and  Chicago,  203;  ambitious, 
205;  wife,  214;  slighted  by 


INDEX 


vn 


Pierce,  232;  Kansas-Nebraska 
Bill,  236;  attacked,  240; 
Southern  Whigs  defend,  240; 
abused  by  Sumner,  245;  for 
Buchanan,  246;  Greeley  sug 
gests  for  President,  251;  re 
volt  on  Kansas,  253;  read  out 
of  Democratic  party,  254; 
campaigning  in  Illinois,  254; 
popularity,  255;  and  Repub 
licans,  255;  debate  with  Lin 
coln,  256;  Freeport  doctrine, 
256;  reflected,  257;  and  Dem 
ocrats,  258;  and  Charleston 
Convention,  260;  nominated 
by  faction,  261;  strength  in 
Northwest,  264 ;  against  seces 
sion,  264;  popular  and  elec 
toral  vote,  265;  for  peace,  273; 
supports  Lincoln,  282,  289; 
death,  289. 

Douglass,  Frederick,  ex-slave 
and  abolitionist,  166. 

Draper  and  Moss,  photogra 
phers,  224. 

Dred  Scott  decision,  247,  257. 

Duane,  William  J.,  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  78;  dismissed, 
79. 

East,  4;  and  democracy,  37,  39; 
emigration  to  West,  40;  popu 
lation,  40,  47,  185;  lands,  41; 
product  and  return  on  capi 
tal,  42;  factory  life,  43;  capi 
talists,  44,  46,  47,  48,  54; 
banks  and  circulation,  45,  46; 
factories  in,  47;  clergy  and 
lawyers,  50;  judges  for  prop 
erty  interests,  51 ;  life  in,  being 
reconstructed,  54,  55;  for 
protection,  59,  60;  and  public 
land  questions,  81;  antago 
nistic  to  South,  61;  and  West, 
61;  defeats  Benton's  land 
program,  65;  and  Clay,  67; 
Jackson  and  Bank,  69;  and 
Union,  75;  distrusts  Van 


Buren,  96;  and  panic  of  1837, 
102,  108,  130,  161;  and  Texas, 
167;  cities  of,  for  Compromise 
of  1850,  181;  foreign  element 
in,  185;  population  in  1830,  in 
1850,  in  1860,  185;  industrial 
area,  187;  shipping  tonnage, 
187;  capital  concentrated  in, 
188;  capital  and  income,  194; 
trade  with  West  and  South, 
205;  religious  life,  218;  school 
children,  223;  college  stu 
dents,  224;  and  Northwest, 
247,  263;  motives  of,  in  the 
Civil  War,  289;  for  emancipa 
tion,  304;  radicals  of,  hostile 
to  Lincoln,  317;  in  control 
after  war,  328. 

Eaton,  John  H.,  Secretary  of 
War,  58;  wife  and  Washing 
ton  Society,  59,  64. 

Education,  in  United  States, 
1850-60,  213. 

Eleventh  Amendment,  and  re 
pudiation  of  state  debts,  106. 

Emancipation  Proclamation, 
promised,  302;  opinion  on, 
divided,  304;  East  for,  Wrest 
against,  304. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  52, 
226;  on  John  Brown,  959. 

England.  Oregon,  25,  27,  122, 
152;  United  States  and  West 
Indian  trade,  84;  mediates 
between  France  and  United 
States,  87;  capital  for  United 
States,  99,  100;  call  for  pay 
ment,  101;  Mexico  and  Lower 
California,  122;  strained  re 
lations  with  United  States, 
122;  the  Webster-Ashburton 
treaty,  123;  slave  trade  and 
right  of  search,  123;  North 
western  boundary,  124;  Ore 
gon,  124,  132,  147,  149;  free- 
trade  movement,  151;  Ore 
gon  trade,  153;  compensated 
owners  for  emancipation  of 


Vlll 


INDEX 


slaves,  164;  Clayton-Bulwer 
Treaty,  173,  205;  possibility 
of  intervention  by,  in  Civil 
War,  314. 

English,  in  United  States,  185; 
attitude  toward  Confederacy, 
314. 

Episcopalians,  and  slavery,  145, 
216,  240. 

Erie  Canal,  exports  of  grain,  29, 
32,  35,  46,  90,  97;  and  Euro 
pean  capital,  99. 

Erie  Railroad,  192. 

Everett,  Edward,  50;  Minister 
to  England,  126;  Massachu 
setts  spokesman,  184;  be 
comes  Democrat,  246;  for 
Vice-President,  261. 

Exports,  cotton  and  other,  12; 
cotton  from  Confederacy, 
313. 

Factory  system,  introduced,  43; 
long  hours  and  poor  pay,  219. 

Fair  Oaks,  battle  of,  296. 

Farm  laborers,  210. 

Farm  life,  211;  methods,  211. 

Federalists,  in  South  Carolina, 
5;  of  New  York  and  Penn 
sylvania,  14;  shipping  inter 
ests,  41. 

Fillmore,  Millard,  President, 
180;  Know-Nothing  candi 
date,  243;  popular  vote,  243. 

Florida,  120;  secession  of,  271, 
313. 

Floyd,  John,  70. 

Floyd,  John  B.,  dismissed  from 
army,  312. 

Food,  of  Americans  in  1860, 
208. 

Foot,  Samuel  A.,  30;  resolution 
on  public  lands,  60. 

Foote,  Commodore,  on  Missis 
sippi  River,  293. 

Foote,  Henry  S.,  for  "all  of 
Mexico,"  158;  Compromise  of 
1850,  178. 


Forbes,  John  M.,  railroad  build 
er,  192. 

Force  Bill,  73,  77. 

Forsyth,  John,  Jackson  leader 
in  the  Senate,  82. 

France,  claims  against,  85; 
threatens  war,  86;  and  tariff, 
151,  201;  and  South,  315;  and 
Mexico,  315. 

Fredericksburg,  battle  of,  303; 
and  English  intervention,  314. 

Free  negroes,  in  South,  138. 

Freeport  doctrine,  256. 

Free-Soil  party,  173;  supports 
Pierce,  182,  184,  241. 

Fremont,  John  C.,  in  Mexican 
War,  154;  Senator,  175;  for 
President,  246;  commander 
at  St.  Louis,  284;  removed 
from  command,  290,  299;  for 
President,  320. 

Friends.   See  Quakers. 

Fugitive  Slave  Law,  strength 
ened  in  1850,  178;  opposition 
to,  184;  nullified  by  Northern 
States,  252. 

Fuller,  Margaret,  226. 

Fur  trade,  St.  Louis  a  center, 
35;  American  Fur  Company, 
35. 

Gadsden,  James,  United  States 
agent  to  Mexico,  232. 

Gallatin,  Albert,  turned  against 
Bank,  83. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  aboli 
tionist,  161;  Liberator,  161; 
abolition  societies,  162;  for 
unconditional  abolition,  164. 

Georgia,  3;  university  of,  7; 
trouble  over  Indians,  7,  8,  21, 
72,  87;  immigration  to,  13,  21, 
28;  Cherokee  Nation  against, 
88,  121;  illiterates,  213;  con 
victs,  213;  Know-Nothings 
defeated  in,  243;  secession  of, 
271;  Union  areas,  279;  dis 
trusted  by  Confederacy,  309; 


INDEX 


conscript  laws  annulled,  312, 
323. 

Germans,  immigration  to  Mis 
sissippi  Valley,  91;  elect  Lin 
coln,  264. 

Germany,  and  tariff,  151. 
Giddings,    J.    R.,    anti-slavery 

leader,  163,  262. 
Gilmore,  Thomas  W.,  121,  132. 
Gladstone,  W.  E.,  favors  South, 
314. 

Graft,  in  Van  Buren's  adminis 
tration,  96. 

Grain,  exported  by  West,  29, 
35;  machinery  invented,  199; 
railroads  and,  199. 

Grant,  U.  S.,  campaign  in  Ten 
nessee,  293;  wins  battle  of 
Shiloh,  294;  made  Halleck 
famous,  300;  blocked  in  Mis 
sissippi,  303;  commander  in 
East,  316;  Wilderness  cam 
paign,  317;  failure  and  criti 
cism  of,  318  ;crosses  the  James, 
318;  invests  Petersburg,  318, 
326;  liberal  terms  to  Lee,  327. 

Great  Britain,  and  American 
shipping,  187. 

Greeley,  Horace,  171;  proposes 
Douglas  for  President,  251; 
and  Chicago  Convention,  262, 
263; against  Lincoln,  320;  sup 
ports  Lincoln,  322. 

Green,  Duff,  editor  of  the  Tele 
graph,  17;  attacks  Adams,  17. 

Greenbacks,  issued,  292,  293; 
unpopular,  304;  more  issued, 
305. 

Grimes,  J.  W.,  241. 

Grimke,  the  Misses,  abolition 
ists,  166. 

Guadalupe-Hidalgo,  Treaty  of, 
174. 

Gulf  States,  immigration  to,  13; 
value    of    exports,    29,    141;: 
Union  areas,  278. 

Guthrie,  James,  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  232. 


Habeas  corpus,  writ  of,  sus 
pended,  304. 

Halleck,  General  H.  W.,  Grant 
makes  famous,  300;  command 
in  East,  300. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  44. 

Hamilton,  James,  71. 

Hammond,  James  H.,  on  slav 
ery,  146. 

Hampton,  Wade,  214. 

Hannegan,  and  Calhoun,  120; 
for  taking  Canada,  158. 

Harper's  Ferry,  John  Brown, 
259,  301. 

Harper's  Magazine,  228. 

Harris,  Townsend,  consul  to 
Japan,  235. 

Harrison,  William  Henry,  Whig 
candidate,  93,  110;  elected, 
111;  and  Clay,  114;  death, 
115. 

Hart,  Joel  T.,  sculptor,  54. 

Harvard,  Unitarian  center,  52; 
confers  degree  of  LL.D.  on 
Jackson,  58;  Southern  stu 
dents  at,  224. 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  182; 
struggling,  226. 

Hayne,  Paul  Hamilton,  227. 

Hayne,  Robert  Y.,  5,  6,  30,  48, 
52;  debate  with  Webster,  61, 
63,  64;  nullification,  71. 

Henry,  Fort,  Grant  captures, 
293 

Hill,  General  A.  P.,  299. 

Hill,  General  D.  H.,  299;  loses 
orders,  301. 

Hodge,  Dr.  Charles,  president  of 
Princeton,  222. 

Hoe,  Richard  M.,  inventor,  224. 

Holden,  W.  W.,  leads  peace 
movement,  312. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  226. 

Homesteads,  free,  in  Republi 
can  platform,  262. 

Hood,  General  John  B.,  de 
feated  by  Sherman,  319;  to 
Nashville,  319. 


INDEX 


Hooker,  General  Joseph,  given 
command  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  303;  loses  at  Chan 
cellors  ville,  305. 

Horseshoe  Bend,  battle  of,  21. 

Houston,  Samuel,  in  Texas,  120; 
Governor  of  Texas,  126. 

Howe,  Elias,  inventor  of  sewing 
machine,  224. 

Hunter,  R.  M.  T.,  324. 

Hunt,  William  Morris,  225. 

Illinois,  3;  for  Jackson,  22; 
population,  28,  87,  89,  90; 
internal  improvements,  90; 
Germans  in,  91;  capital  from 
New  York  and  London,  91; 
debt  and  income,  98;  for  Van 
Buren,  111,  113;  Oregon  and 
Texas,  122,  131;  Indians  re 
moved,  199,  201,  205;  con 
victs  in  1860,  213;  educational 
reform,  223;  for  opening  Ne 
braska,  238;  North  for  Re 
publicans,  241;  for  Buchanan, 
246,  262,  263;  Democratic, 
302. 

Illinois  Central  Railroad,  built, 
204. 

Immigration,  40,  212. 

Independent  Treasury,  pro 
posed,  103;  contested,  104; 
established,  104, 107, 108, 109; 
law  repealed,  115;  reenacted, 
149. 

Indian  Territory,  89. 

Indiana,  for  Jackson,  22;  pop 
ulation,  90;  internal  improve 
ments,  90;  capital  from  New 
York  and  London,  91,  113; 
Indians  removed,  199,  201; 
illiterates,  213;  educational 
reform,  223;  for  opening  Ne 
braska,  238;  North  for  Re 
publicans,  241;  for  Buchanan, 
246,  262;  Democratic,  302. 

Indians,  Creeks,  1,  2,  26;  re 
moval  desired,  29;  and  Geor 


gia,  72;  removal  by  Jackson, 
87,  88;  Cherokee  Nation 
against  Georgia,  88;  Seminole 
War,  104. 

Ingham,  Samuel  D.,  14,  17;  Sec 
retary  of  the  Treasury,  58. 

Internal  improvements,  West 
for,  28,  59;  Carey  and  Lea 
pamphlets,  53,  55;  Maysville 
veto,  63,  65;  and  Whigs,  110, 
130;  extending  slavery,  141, 
150,  152;  and  Wilmot  Pro 
viso,  170. 

Inventions,  199,  212,  224. 

Iowa,  87,  89,  90,  106;  made 
State,  198;  Indians  removed, 
199,  201,  205;  for  opening  Ne 
braska,  238,  264. 

Irish,  in  United  States,  185. 

Irving,  Washington,  52. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  early  life,  1; 
candidate  for  President,  2,  4; 
tariff  views,  6;  and  Calhoun, 
6;  and  Indians,  8,  18;  and 
North  Carolina,  9;  and  Vir 
ginia,  11,  14;  campaign  man 
agers,  16,  17,  18;  skillful  poli 
tician,  18;  inauguration.  20, 
21;  supplants  Clay  in  West, 
21,  22;  planters  distrust,  23, 
24,  25,  27,  28;  duelist.  32; 
"Old  Hickory,"  36,  37;  West 
ern  opposition,  37;  "King 
Andrew  I,"  37;  Eastern  dis 
trust,  39;  first  Cabinet,  56,  58; 
degree  of  LL.D.  from  Har 
vard,  58;  party  divided,  58, 59; 
Cabinets,  58;  "Kitchen  Cabi 
net,"  58;  removals  by,  58;  ap 
pointments  by,  58,  59;  Eaton 
affair,  59;  and  tariff.  59;  and 
Foot  Resolution,  60;  and 
Bank,  60,  65,  66,  67, 68,  77, 80; 
for  second  term,  62;  Van  Buren 
and  Calhoun,  62;  Union  toast, 
62;  Maysville  veto,  63;  break 
with  Calhoun,  64;  Cabinet 


INDEX 


XI 


changed,  64;  platform  unful 
filled,  65;  and  South  Caro 
lina,  69,  71,  72,  73;  Bank 
veto,  69;  campaign  of  1832, 
70,  71,  72;  Georgia  and  the 
Indians,  72;  Nullification 
Proclamation  and  Force  Bill, 
73;  Verplanck  Tariff  Bill,  73; 
messages,  76;  defeated  on 
tariff,  79;  Bank  war  on,  80; 
Bank  defeated,  82,  84;  dip 
lomatic  relations,  West  In 
dian  trade,  84;  French  spolia 
tion  claims,  85;  Senate  op 
position,  86;  House  support, 
86;  war  threatened,  86;  peace 
ful  settlement,  87;  removal  of 
Indians,  87,  89,  90;  successes, 
91,  92;  Distribution  Bill 
vetoed,  92;  deposit  with 
States,  92;  railroads,  92; 
Specie  Circular,  92;  revolts 
against,  92,  93;  triumphant 
retirement,  94;  and  Van 
Buren,  96,  97,  98,  100,  103; 
and  Texas,  105,  107, 108,  109, 
111;  repudiated  in  1840,  112, 
117,  120,  127,  144;  and  aboli 
tion  mail,  165,  187,  242,  265; 
denounces  secession,  268. 

Jackson,  Thomas  J.  ("Stone 
wall"),  at  Bull  Run,  285;  Val 
ley  campaign,  296;  reinforces 
Lee,  297;  failures  in  Peninsula 
campaign,  297,  299;  sent 
against  Pope,  299;  Cedar 
Mountain,  299,  301;  death, 
305. 

Japan,  trade  relations  with,  235. 

Jay  Treaty,  84. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  Jackson-like, 
3,  36;  sale  of  Monticello,  13, 
19,  23,  50,  54,  62,  142,  167; 
and  public  education,  223; 
Lincoln-like,  265. 

Jeffersonian  party,  getting  aris 
tocratic,  3,  5,  17,  30,  109, 
167. 


Johnson,  Andrew,  for  Vice- 
President,  320. 

Johnson,  Richard  M.,  rival  of 
Clay,  22. 

Johnston,  Albert  Sidney,  made 
general,  276;  battle  of  Shiloh, 
293;  killed,  294. 

Johnston,  Joseph  E.,  made  gen 
eral,  276,  281;  at  Bull  Run, 
285;  quarrel  with  Davis,  287; 
Peninsula  campaign,  297; 
wounded,  296;  in  Georgia, 
318,  319;  removed  from  com 
mand,  319;  restored  to  com 
mand,  325;  surrenders  to 
Sherman,  327. 

Jones,  Commodore,  125. 

Judd,  Norman  B.,  Republican 
leader,  255. 

Kansas,  89,  199;  organized  as 
Territory,  241;  popular  sov 
ereignty,  243;  Topeka  Con 
vention,  244;  two  govern 
ments,  244;  deadlock  in  Con 
gress  over,  244;  war  in,  248; 
Walker,  Governor,  249;  Le- 
compton  Constitution,  249. 

Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  172,  198, 
235,236;  and  Pacific  Railway 
238;  provisions,  239;  angry 
debate  on,  240;  passed,  240; 
resulting  campaign,  241. 

Kearny,  Colonel  S.  W.,  cam 
paign  in  New  Mexico,  154. 

Kendall,  Amos,  58,  62. 

Kennedy,  John  P.,  53. 

Kenner,  Duncan  F.,  Confeder 
ate  agent  to  Europe,  323. 

Kent,  Chancellor,  against  uni 
versal  suffrage,  14,  51. 

Kentucky,  13;  and  Clay,  15,  21, 
22;  and  R.  M.  Johnson,  22; 
population,  28,  32;  and  Jack 
son,  37,  40,  63,  70;  Germans 
in,  91;  "slavery  a  blessing," 
119,  121;  live  stock  to  South, 
141;  Presbyterians  in,  143; 


Xll 


INDEX 


and  slavery,  161;  for  Scott, 
182;  and  Kansas-Nebraska 
Bill,  238, 246;  secession  of,  pre 
vented,  275;  occupied  by 
Federals,  293;  against  eman 
cipation,  301 ;  Republican 
party  in  1862,  302;  held  by 
Federals,  313. 

Know-Nothing  party,  242;  de 
feated  in  Virginia  and  Geor 
gia,  243;  in  1856,  243,  261, 
264. 

Labor  unions,  beginning,  209. 

Laborers,  conditions  poor,  209. 

Larkin,  Thomas  O.,  seizure  of 
California,  154. 

Lawyers,  support  capitalists, 
50,  51;  in  South,  allied  with 
planters,  139. 

Lecompton  Constitution,  of 
Kansas,  249. 

Lee,  Robert  E.,  214,  259;  made 
general,  276;  drills  Virginia 
troops,  281;  expected  suc 
cess,  282;  home  seized,  283; 
sent  to  West  Virginia,  286; 
loses  West  Virginia,  296;  in 
chief  command,  296;  Penin 
sula  command,  297;  loses  at 
Mechanicsville,  297;  wins  at 
Gaines's  Mills,  297;  pursues 
McClellan,  297;  loses  at  Mal- 
vern  Hill,  297,  298;  second 
Bull  Run,  300;  into  Maryland, 
300,  301;  Antietam,  302;  re 
tires  into  Virginia,  302;  wins 
at  Fredericks!) urg,  303;  wins 
at  Chancellorsville,  305;  sec 
ond  invasion  of  North,  305; 
Gettysburg,  306;  retreat  to 
Virginia,  307;  uncompromis 
ing,  309;  urges  conscription, 
311,  312;  checks  Grant,  318; 
Grant  outwits,  318;  facing 
Grant  at  Petersburg,  323;  re 
fuses  dictatorship,  324;  army 
in  want,  325;  odds  against, 


326;  retreat  to  west,  326;  sur 
render,  327. 

Legare,  Hugh  S.,  Secretary  of 
State,  126. 

Lewis,  William  B.,  58,  62,  64. 

Lexington,  Kentucky,  34;  Me 
chanics'  Library,  35,  63. 

Liberator,  abolition  weekly,  162. 

Liberty  party,  nominates  Van 
Buren,  173. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  32,  36;  in 
Republican  party,  241,  242; 
against  Douglas,  255;  debate 
with  Douglas,  256;  "house- 
divided-against-itself,"  256; 
Presidential  timber,  257;  Chi 
cago  Convention  of  1860,  261; 
nominated  for  President,  263; 
character,  263,  265;  election 
of,  and  South,  268;  concilia 
tory,  269;  inaugural,  272; 
yields  to  radicals,  273;  saves 
Maryland,  Kentucky,  Mis 
souri,  275;  calls  for  volunteers, 
282;  war  to  preserve  Union, 
289;  Douglas  supports,  289; 
calls  for  more  men,  290,  320; 
and  finance,  292;  dark  hours, 
300;  promises  emancipation, 
302;  arbitrary  arrests,  304; 
opposition  to,  304,  316;  hope 
in  Grant,  317;  nominated  for 
President  by  National  Union 
ists,  320;  asked  to  withdraw, 
321;  appoints  day  of  thanks 
giving,  321;  strongly  sup 
ported,  322,  324. 

Literature,  flower  of  American 
culture,  226. 

Live  stock,  exported  by  West, 
29;  to  cotton  belt,  141. 

Liverpool,  capital  of,  invested 
in  United  States,  100,  205. 

Livingston,  Edward,  Secretary 
of  State,  65;  Minister  to 
France,  78;  for  Bank,  78;  and 
French  claims,  85. 

Loco-focos,  108. 


INDEX 


London,  capital  loaned  to  West, 

91;    in    United    States,    100, 

205. 

Longfellow,  Henry  W.,  226. 
Longstreet,  A.  B.,  227. 
Longstreet,  General  James,  299, 

301 ;  sent  to  Bragg,  307. 
Lopez,  Narcisco,  198. 
Louisiana,  8;  in  cotton  belt,  12, 

86;  "slavery  a  blessing,"  119; 

secession  of,  271. 
Lovejoy,  Elijah  P.,  anti-slavery 

leader,  164;  murdered,  166. 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  227. 
Lowndes,  William,  5. 

Macon,  Nathaniel,  in  Senate, 
16. 

McClellan,  George  B.,  at  Cin 
cinnati,  283;  drilling  army, 
293;  Peninsula  campaign, 
296;  failure,  298;  army  with 
drawn,  299;  removed  from 
command,  299;  popular  with 
army,  300;  restored  to  com 
mand,  301;  Antietam,  302; 
again  removed,  303;  men 
tioned  for  President,  317; 
nominated  by  Democrats,  321. 

McClelland,  Robert,  Secretary 
of  the  Interior,  232. 

McCormick,  Cyrus,  199,  202. 

McCreary,  James,  34. 

McDowell,  General  Irvin,  com 
manding  in  Virginia,  283;  Bull 
Run,  285,  299. 

McDuffie,  George,  6;  for  Bank, 
68;  debtor  of  Bank,  79,  82. 

McLane,  Louis,  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  65;  Secretary  of 
State,  78;  for  Bank,  78. 

McLeod,  Alexander,  trial  in  New 
York,  123. 

Madison,  James,  in  Virginia 
Convention  of  1829,  10. 

Maine,  14;  population,  39,  41, 
48;  Democratic,  55,  105; 
north  eastern  boundary  settled, 


124;  "Aroostook  War,"  124, 
187,  264. 

Malvern  Hill,  battle  of,  298. 

Manassas,  battles  of.  See  Bull 
Run. 

Mann,  Horace,  and  public 
schools,  223. 

Manufacturing,  Cincinnati  a 
center,  35;  growth  in  East, 
1820-30,  41;  cotton  and  wool 
en,  42;  product  and  return  on 
capital,  42;  factory  life,  43; 
men  in  control,  47;  industrial 
area,  47,  49;  transition  from 
agriculture,  50;  political  pow 
er,  54,  55;  eastern  area,  187, 
205. 

Marcy,  William  L.,  in  Folk's 
Cabinet,  147;  Secretary  of 
State,  231,  234. 

Marshall,  John,  10,  22,  32,  51, 
99. 

Marshall,  Thomas,  33. 

Maryland,  14,  18,  23,  40,  50; 
banking  iaws,  106,  133;  in 
ternal  improvements,  133; 
and  slavery,  161;  and  Know- 
Nothings,  243,  265;  secession 
prevented,  275;  Lee  in,  300; 
against  emancipation,  301. 

Mason,  James  M.,  150,  215; 
commissioner  to  Europe,  286, 
314. 

Mason,  John  Y.,  in  Folk's  Cabi 
net,  149,  215;  Minister  to 
France,  234;  Ostend  Mani 
festo,  235. 

Massachusetts,  3;  conservative, 
15; population, 39;  cottonand 
wool  manufacture,  42;  bank 
capital  and  circulation,  45; 
tax  valuation,  46;  particu 
larism  and  free  trade  to  na 
tionalism  and  protection,  54; 
banking  laws,  106;  for  Scott, 
182,  184;  manufacturing,  187; 
shipping,  187;  illiterates,  213; 
convicts,  213;  and  Sumner, 


XIV 


INDEX 


245;  nullifies  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  252. 

Matamoras,  battle  of,  154. 

Maysville  Bill,  63,  64,  67. 

Meade,  George  Gordon,  given 
command  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  306;  wins  at  Gettys 
burg,  306. 

Mechanics'  Library  of  Lexing 
ton,  Ky.,  fostered  by  Clay, 
35. 

Mechanicsville,  battle  of,  297. 

Medill,  Joseph,  Republican 
leader,  255. 

Methodists,  in  West,  33;  in 
South,  143;  and  slavery,  143, 
144,  161,  165,  221;  increase  of 
membership,  145;  in  South, 
218;  strength  of  clergy,  220; 
members,  222;  educational 
institutions,  222,  223. 

Mexican  War,  135,  154. 

Mexico,  West  and,  25,  27;  and 
England,  122,  126,  132,  135; 
Texas  boundary,  148;  Slidell's 
mission  to,  153;  war  with, 
154;  desire  for  all,  157,  161, 
247. 

Michigan,  22,  87;  population, 
90;  Dutch  repudiated,  106; 
Oregon  and  Texas,  132;  made 
State,  198;  Indians  removed, 
199;  Republican  party  organ 
ized,  241. 

Michigan  Central  Railroad,  192. 

Middle  States,  6,  13,  14;  and 
Jackson,  17,  18,  22;  labor 
scarce  in,  30,  40;  banks,  45: 
literature,  52,  53,  54,  55,  68, 
74,  83,  84,  93;  poor  wheat 
crop,  101;  Texas  and  Oregon, 
127;  abolition  societies  in, 
162. 

Minnesota,  87,  89;  made  State, 
198;  Indians  removed,  199. 

Mississippi,  and  Indians,  8,  87; 
and  Jackson,  72;  population, 
89,  90;  debt  and  income,  98; 


internal  improvements,  98; 
debts  of,  repudiated,  106; 
"slavery  a  blessing,"  119;  Van 
Buren  and  Texas,  128;  Cali 
fornia  and  slavery,  175;  seces 
sion  of,  271,  313. 

Mississippi  River,  87;  canal 
feeders,  90;  Commodore  Foote 
on,  293;  held  by  Federals,  307. 

Mississippi  Valley,  2,  11,  21;  for 
Texas  and  Oregon,  25;  value 
of  exports,  29,  36;  immigra 
tion  to,  90;  Germans  in,  91; 
cotton  belt,  135,  198;  growth 
and  power,  199. 

Missouri,  and  Clay,  21,  22;  the 
bank,  tariff,  and  internal  im 
provements,  22;  horse-racing, 
32,  37,  40;  Germans  in,  91; 
for  Van  Buren,  111;  emigra 
tion  from,  to  Oregon,  127, 
131;  Pacific  Railroad,  238; 
and  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill, 
238;  and  Kansas,  245,  265; 
secession  of,  prevented,  275; 
held  by  Federals,  313. 

Missouri  Compromise,  repealed, 
239;  Dred  Scott  decision,  247. 

Missouri  Valley,  in  plantation 
belt,  138. 

Mobile,  Ala.,  blockade-running 
from,  313;  taken  by  Farragut, 
321. 

Mobile  and  Ohio  Railroad,  204. 

Monroe,  James,  in  Virginia  Con 
vention  of  1829,  10,  28,  89, 
105. 

Monroe  Doctrine,  France  and 
Mexico  and,  315. 

Monterey,  battle  of,  154. 

Monticello,  sale  of,  13. 

Mormons,  176. 

Morse,  S.  F.  B.,  224. 

Motley,  John  L.,  215,  228. 

Murfreesboro,  battle  of,  295. 

Napoleon  III,  favors  South,  314, 
316. 


INDEX 


xv 


Nashville,  Term.,  Federals  cap 
ture,  293. 

Nat  Turner,  slave  insurrection, 
118. 

National  Bank,  114;  Tyler's 
views,  115;  bills  vetoed,  116, 
130. 

National  debt,  paid,  92. 

National  road,  90. 

Nebraska,  199;  organized  as 
Territory,  241. 

New  England,  for  Adams,  14, 
18;  suffrage  and  Democracy 
in,  15,  23,  24,  28;  hostile  to 
West,  29,  39;  population,  39, 
40;  growth  of  manufactures, 
41;  banks,  45;  trade  with 
South,  46;  literature,  52,  53, 
54;  painting  and  sculpture, 
54;  industrial  control,  55,  56; 
and  tariff,  66,  67;  and  South 
Carolina,  72, 84;  against  Jack 
son,  93;  for  Harrison  and 
Tyler,  111,  112,  125,  126; 
Oregon  and  Texas,  131,  140, 
149;  abolition  societies,  163; 
against  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
184;  aristocratic  life,  215;  de 
cline  of  Puritanism  in,  216, 
222;  and  Buchanan,  246;  for 
nullification  and  secession, 
252,  253;  for  Seward,  257; 
threats  of  secession.  268,  269; 
Confederate  raids  into,  323. 

New  Hampshire,  14;  population, 
39. 

New  Jersey,  14,  18,  302. 

New  Mexico,  152,  154;  Terri 
tory  of,  organized,  176,  179. 

New  Orleans,  battle  of,  2,  21, 
32;  commerce,  35,  36;  and 
Jackson,  37;  failures,  101; 
sub-treasury  at,  151,  193; 
winter  resort,  214;  held  by 
Federals,  213. 

New  York,  constitutional  re 
form,  14;  for  Jackson,  14,  15, 
18,  71;  Western  element,  28, 


32,  39;  population,  40;  manu 
facturing,  42;  banking  capi 
tal  and  circulation,  42,  83; 
banking  laws,  105,  149;  man 
ufacturing,  187;  shipping, 
187,  195,  200;  Democratic, 
302;  panic  at  Lee's  invasion, 
305. 

New  York  Central  Railroad,  192. 

New  York  City,  manufactur 
ing,  41;  financial  center,  45; 
land  value,  46,  48;  literary 
seat,  52;  newspaper  for  Bank, 
79;  high  interest,  83,  84;  capi 
tal  to  West,  91,  96;  failures, 
101;  for  Walker  program, 
129;  sub-treasury  at,  151, 
187;  financial  center,  189, 
193,  194,  195,  202,  205,  209, 
222;  and  Buchanan,  246,  305; 
Confederates  try  to  burn, 
323. 

New  York  Evening  Post,  53;  for 
"all  of  Mexico,"  156. 

New  York  Times,  friendly  to 
Confederacy,  272. 

New  York  Tribune,  friendly  to 
Confederacy,  272. 

Nicholson  letters,  of  Cass,  172. 

Norfolk,  Va.,  held  by  Federals, 
313. 

North,  165,  251,  259;  devotion 
to  Union,  269;  opposed  to 
war,  272;  united  for  Union, 
283;  hatred  of  South,  284; 
danger  of  break-up,  289;  pros 
perous,  292;  divided  counsels, 
301;  ready  for  reunion,  309; 
wins  political  control,  328; 
cost  of  war,  328. 

North  American  Review,  52,  53. 

North  Carolina,  declares  tariff 
unconstitutional,  7,  8;  East 
and  West  compromise,  8;  unit 
for  Jackson,  9,  12,  14,  23,  28; 
dread  of  West,  30,  and  nulli 
fication,  72;  "slavery  a  bless 
ing,"  119,  121;  tobacco  belt, 


XVI 


INDEX 


132;  cotton  belt,  135,  140, 
141;  Presbyterians  in,  143; 
anti-slavery,  161;  and  Com 
promise  of  1850,  178,  264; 
Union  areas,  278;  resistance  to 
conscription,  311;  peace  move 
ment  in,  312;  conscript  laws 
annulled  by,  312,  313;  opposi 
tion  to  Davis,  323;  fears  Sher 
man,  325. 

Northwest,  for  Jackson,  22; 
radical,  23,  40;  outstripping 
Southwest,  121;  demand  for 
Oregon,  122,  126,  140;  inter 
nal  improvements,  152;  aboli 
tion  societies,  163;  and  Polk, 
169;  Southern  alliance  brok 
en,  173;  expansion,  174,  181; 
foreign  element,  185;  popu 
lation,  185;  feared  by  South, 
198;  grain  and  meat,  199; 
capital,  income,  debts,  202; 
and  South,  203;  and  Douglas, 
203;  land  for  railroads,  203; 
expansion  and  ambition,  204; 
and  slavery,  221;  school  chil 
dren,  223;  college  students, 
224;  and  Pierce,  231;  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill,  236;  clash 
with  South,  236;  Pacific  Rail 
road,  238;  and  East,  242,  263; 
Lincoln  and  Douglas,  264; 
threatened  secession,  269; 
supporting  Lincoln,  282; 
against  abolitionists,  301 ;  hos 
tile  to  Lincoln,  317. 

Nova  Scotia,  main  boundary, 
124. 

Nueces  River,  south  bankseized, 
148. 

Nullification,  formulated  by 
Calhoun,  6;  Hay  ne- Webster 
debate,  61 ;  imminent  in  South 
Carolina,  66,  71;  ended  in 
South  Carolina,  75. 

Ogden,  William  B.,  202. 

Ohio,  15;  canals,  35;  and  Jack 


son,  37;  migration  to,  39; 
trade  to  New  York,  46,  55, 
71;  internal  improvements, 
90;  Germans  in,  91,  119;  Ore 
gon  and  Texas,  122,  162;  and 
Republicans,  241;  Democrat 
ic,  302. 

Ohio  Valley,  46,  56;  in  planta 
tion  belt,  138. 

Oklahoma,  89,  199. 

Omnibus  Bill,  180. 

Oregon,  and  West,  25,  36;  and 
Van  Buren,  89;  demand  for, 
122;  boundary,  124,  125; 
Walker  letter,  129;  Demo 
crats  and,  129,  131,  152; 
Treaty,  153;  and  Wilmot 
Proviso,  170;  free  States,  174, 
199. 

Ostend  Manifesto,  235. 

Pacific  Railroad,  204,  232,  263. 

Palmer,  B.  M.,  secession  ser 
mon,  221,  278. 

Panama  Railroad,  192. 

Panic  of  1837,  causes,  97,  102. 

Parker,  Theodore,  heretical, 
218. 

Parson,  Theophilus,  great  law 
yer,  51. 

Peace  congress,  272. 

Peck,  John  M.,  library,  35. 

Pendleton,  G.  H.,  Democratic 
leader,  321. 

Peninsula  campaign,  296. 

Pennsylvania,  3;  and  Calhoun, 
5;  protectionism,  5,  14,  17, 18; 
Western  element,  28,  39,  40; 
manufacturing  in,  42;  west 
ern,  55,  71,  83,  98;  banks, 
98,  151;  manufacturing,  187; 
shipping,  187,  201;  illiterates, 
213,  246;  Democratic,  302; 
panic  in,  at  Lee's  invasion, 
305. 

Pennsylvania  Railroad,  192. 

Perry,  Commodore,  opening 
Japan,  235. 


INDEX 


xvn 


Philadelphia,  manufacturing  at, 
41;  financial  center,  45,  46, 
48;  and  Bank,  79;  failures, 
101;  mint  at,  151,  188,  193, 
209,  222,  306. 
Phillips,  Wendell,  abolition 

leader,  166. 

Pierce,  Franklin,  for  President, 
182;  inauguration,  184,  206; 
and  Northwest,  231;  pro 
gram,  232;  Pacific  Railroad, 
233;  Cuba,  233;  commercial 
expansion,  235;  Eastern  op 
position,  235,  239. 
Plantation,  life  in  Old  South, 
137,  138;  spread  of  system, 
193. 

Planters,  rulers  of  South,  138; 
number,    139;     and    profes 
sional  men,  139. 
Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  226. 
Poindexter,  George,  in  Senate, 

16;  duelist,  32. 

Polk,  James  K.,  53;  Speaker  of 
House,  130;  for  President, 
130;  election  and  intentions, 
131,  135,  140,  145;  and  Ore 
gon,  149,  153;  and  Tariff  of 
1846,  151;  vetoes  Internal 
Improvements  Bill,  152;  sends 
Slidell  to  Mexico,  153,  155; 
and  Mexican  Treaty,  157; 
death,  160,  161;  denounced 
by  Sumner,  168;  and  Wilmot 
Proviso,  170;  and  Panama 
Canal,  174;  and  California 
175;  recommendations,  232. 
Pope,  General  John,  given  army 
299;  battle  of  Cedar  Moun 
tain,  299;  second  battle  of 
Bull  Run,  300. 

Popular  sovereignty,  236,  255. 
Population,  of  cotton  belt,  12 
of  United  States,  28,  40,  184 
of  West,  28,  40;  of  New  Eng 
land,  39;  of  New  York,  40;  o 
East,  40;  of  South,  40;  foreign 
elements,  185. 


'owers,  Hiram,  sculptor,  225. 
'rentiss,  Sargent,  90. 
resbyterians,  in  West,  33;  in 
South,  142,  218;  and  slavery, 
143,  145,  160;  strong  clergy, 
220;  members  in  1860,  220; 
Princeton  a  center,  222. 
'rescott,  William  H.,  228. 
'resident,  one  term  demanded, 
16;  and  Supreme  Court,  51, 
55. 

'residential  campaign,  of  1828, 
3,  18,  19;  of  1832,  69,  70; 
of  1836,  92;  of  1840,  110; 
of  1844,  127;  of  1848,  170;  of 
1852,  182;  of  1856,  245;  of 
1860,  261. 

Preston,  Billiard,  171. 
Preston,  William  C.,  93. 
Princeton  College,  Presbyterian 
center,   232;  Southerners  at, 
224. 
Pry  or,  General  Roger  A.,  and 

Fort  Sumter,  275. 
Public  debt  of   United  States, 

paid,  99. 
Public  education,  in  West,  34; 

in  South,  142. 
Public  lands,  25,  26;  squatters, 
27;  Benton  and,  27;  for 
schools,  34;  Foot  Resolution, 
60;  Preemption  Bill,  60,  89, 
108;  sales,  91,  97;  Specie  Cir 
cular,  92;  distribution  of  pro 
ceeds,  114,  116;  for  railroads, 
203. 

Quakers,  22. 

Quitman,  John  A.,  91;  filibus 
tering,  198. 

Railroads,  speculation  in  West, 
92;  and  Jackson,  92;  building, 
192;  opening  grain  region, 
199;  of  South  breaking  down, 
310,  323. 

Randolph,  John,  10,  11,  15:  16, 
30,  132. 


xvm 


INDEX 


Rankin,  John,  anti-slavery 
worker,  119,  161. 

Reeder,  Andrew,  Governor  of 
Kansas,  243. 

Religion,  in  ante-bellum  South, 
143;  American,  of  1860,  216. 

Republican  party,  in  Wisconsin 
and  Michigan,  241,  242; 
Northern  and  anti-slavery, 
243;  platform,  246;  and  Fre 
mont,  246,  247,  251;  and 
Douglas,  255;  and  Seward, 
257;  Chicago  Convention, 
261,  262;  conciliatory,  270; 
loses  seven  States,  302. 

Repudiation  of  state  debts,  106; 
effect  on  Confederacy,  316. 

Revenue,  of  United  States,  ex 
ceeding  expenses,  92;  surplus 
distribution  vetoed,  92;  sur 
plus  deposited  with  States,  92; 
defaulters,  96,  97,  98,  103. 

Rhett,  Robert  Barnwell,  6,  15; 
threatening  secession,  117, 
132,  150,  152;  retired  after 
1850,  181;  for  secession,  264, 
270;  opposed  to  Davis,  312, 
324. 

Rhode  Island,  15. 

Rice,  5,  12,  132. 

Rice,  Nathan  L.,  slavery  divine, 
221 

Richmond,  Va.,  10;  and  Bank, 
79;  wheat  market,  133;  Con 
federate  capital,  280;  social 
life,  280;  evacuated,  326. 

Rio  Grande,  boundary  pro 
posed,  130,  148,  194. 

Ritchie,  Thomas,  and  Walker, 
129;  for  Compromise  of  1850, 
178. 

Rives,  William  C.,  supporting 
Tyler,  116,  324. 

Robinson,  Charles,  anti-slavery 
leader,  244. 

Rosecrans,  General  W.  S.,  295; 
battle  of  Murfreesboro,  295, 
303. 


Ross,  John,  chief  of  Cherokees, 

88. 
Rush,    Richard,    candidate   for 

Vice-P  resident,  17. 

St.  Louis,  Mo.,  Mercantile  Li 
brary,'  35;  fur  trade,  35;  in 
cotton  belt,  135,  193;  Pacific 
Railroad,  235. 

Santa  Anna,  154. 

Sargent,  John,  candidate  for 
Vice-President,  67. 

Savannah,  Ga.,  blockade-run 
ning  from,  313;  captured  by 
Sherman,  324. 

Scammon,  John  Y.,  202. 

Schurz,  Carl,  and  Lincoln's 
election,  264. 

Scott,  General  Winfield,  sent  to 
Mexico,  155;  captures  Vera 
Cruz,  155;  Cerro  Gordo,  156; 
Churubusco,  156;  Molino  del 
Rey,  156;  Chapultepec,  156; 
Mexico  City,  captured,  156; 
Whig  candidate  for  President, 
181;  blunders,  181;  defeat, 
182,  283. 

Secession,  final  remedy,  6;  Cal- 
houn  and,  145;  over  Texas 
question,  167;  over  California, 
176;  of  South,  contemplated, 
198;  threatened  in  1856,  246? 
of  Wisconsin  threatened,  252; 
much  talked  of,  253;  histori 
cal  background,  268,  270. 

Sectionalism,  in  South  Caro 
lina,  5;  in  North  Carolina,  8; 
in  Virginia,  10, 145;  checked, 
171,  205,  231;  renewed,  235; 
strong,  265. 

Seminole  War,  2;  and  Jackson, 
64. 

Seward,  William  H.,  anti-slav 
ery  Whig,  164;  for  Wilmot 
Proviso,  171 ;  adviser  to  Tay 
lor,  175,  179,  180,  184,  214; 
attacks  Douglas,  240,  242, 
243;  and  Kansas,  245;  for 


INDEX 


xix 


popular  sovereignty,  251,  255, 
257;  Chicago  Convention, 
261,  262;  defeated,  263;  con 
ciliatory,  269,  271;  for  peace, 
273;  and  arbitrary  arrests, 
304;  opposes  emancipation, 
304,  315;  meets  Confederate 
commissioners,  324. 

Seymour,  Horatio,  Democratic 
leader,  321. 

Sheridan,  General  Philip,  wins 
at  Winchester,  322;  lays  waste 
Shenandoah  Valley,  322,  326. 

Sherman,  General  W.  T.,  303; 
in  Georgia,  318;  forces  John 
ston  back,  319;  defeats 
Hood  and  captures  Atlanta, 
319;  march  to  sea,  322,  323; 
captures  Savannah,  324,  325; 
Johnston  surrenders  to,  327. 

Shiloh,  battle  of,  293. 

Ship  subsidies,  205,  232,  235. 

Shipping,  manufacturing  gain 
ing  in  East,  41,  47;  merchants 
appeal  to  Hayne,  48;  in 
crease,  1850-60,  205. 

Simms,  William  Gilmore,  225. 

Slave-owners,     138;     number, 
139. 

Slave  trade,  negotiations  with 
England,  123;  Creole  affair, 
124;  agitation  for  reopening, 
198;  active,  252;  forbidden  by 
Confederacy,  271. 

Slavery,  in  South  Carolina,  4; 
in  North  Carolina,  9;  in  Vir 
ginia,  10,  13,  30,  118;  value 
of  slaves,  42;  product,  42;  in 
Democratic  platform,  110; 
Dew  on,  118;  "a  blessing," 
118,  119;  and  Northern  busi 
ness,  119,  134;  plantation  life, 
136,  210;  profitable  unit,  137; 
in  Southwest,  140;  and  the 
churches,  144;  early  Southern 
opposition,  161 ;  abolition  and, 
163;  in  Territories,  174;  and 
California,  175;  Dred  Scott 


decision,  248;  Lincoln-Doug 
las  debates,  256;  Freeport 
doctrine,  256;  popular  sov 
ereignty,  236,  255,  256;  and 
Republicans,  262;  guaranteed 
by  Confederacy,  271. 

Slaves,  conditions  of  life,  210; 
faithful  during  war,  277; 
emancipation  to  be  pro 
claimed,  302;  Davis  offers 
emancipation  of,  in  effort  to 
secure  European  recognition 
of  Confederacy,  323;  offered 
freedom  to  fight,  325. 

Slidell,  John,  91;  mission  to 
Mexico,  153,  215,  258;  com 
missioner  to  Europe,  285;  in 
France,  315. 

Sloat,  Commodore  John  D., 
seizes  California,  154. 

Smith,  Gerrit,  166. 

Sons  of  Liberty,  321,  323. 

Soule,  Bishop,  34. 

Soule,  Pierre,  commissioner  to 
Spain,  233;  recalled,  234; 
Ostend  Manifesto,  234. 

South,  4,  6,  7,  8,  12,  13;  against 
Adams,  13;  for  Jackson,  17, 
18,  23;  planters  not  demo 
cratic,  24;  alliance  with  West, 
30,  40,  109,  129,  131;  uneasy 
about  slavery,  37;  population, 
40,  41,  42;  exports,  42;  banks 
and  circulation,  45 ;  trade  with 
New  England,  and  New  York, 
46;  cotton,  slaves,  land,  47, 
48;  judges  for  property  inter 
ests,  51,  55,  58;  for  free  trade, 
59;  and  the  Bank,  60,  61,  69, 
80;  control  or  secession,  62; 
and  protection,  68,  69,  70;  and 
nullification,  72;  market  for 
East,  75;  and  Union,  75;  re 
moval  of  Indians,  87;  for  Van 
Buren,  93;  land  office  de 
faulters,  96,  101,  115,  117, 
118,  119;  for  Texas,  120; 
North  outstripping,  121,  124; 


INDEX 


and  Texas,  126;  Oregon  and 
Texas,  129;  Walker  letter, 
129;  California,  Oregon,  and 
Texas,  132;  ante-bellum,  and 
civilization,  132,  133,  135; 
plantation  life  in,  136,  138, 
139,  140,  141;  rural  life,  142; 
court  days,  142;  few  paupers 
and  insane,  142,  143,  145, 
160,  161;  abolitionists  mis 
trust,  163,  164;  and  aboli 
tion  agitation,  165;  Texas 
or  secession,  167;  for  Cass, 
172;  break  with  Northwest, 
173;  desperate  situation,  174; 
proposed  conventions,  176, 
178;  accepts  compromise, 
181;  population,  185;  railroad 
building,  189;  plantation  sys 
tem,  193,  194,  195;  commer 
cial  conventions,  195;  Cuba, 
Nicaragua,  slave  trade,  198; 
contemplating  secession,  198, 
203;  trade  with  North,  205, 
213;  aristocratic  life,  213; 
Calvinistic  religion,  218;  pub 
lic  education,  223;  college 
students,  224,  234;  clash  with 
Northwest,  236,  240;  becom 
ing  solid,  243,  246;  against 
Douglas,  257;  John  Brown 
raid,  259;  preparing  for  seces 
sion,  264;  and  Lincoln's  elec 
tion,  268,  269;  war  enthusi 
asm,  276,  277;  Union  areas, 
278,  279,  280;  confidence, 
282;  currency  and  finances, 
286;  not  ready  for  reunion, 
309;  debt  currency  and  taxa 
tion,  310;  dissensions,  310, 
311;  cost  of  war  to,  328. 
South  Carolina,  4;  cotton  and 
politics,  5;  Calhoun  and  Jack 
son,  8,  11,  14,  19,  23,  28,  30; 
nationalism  and  protection  to 
particularism  and  free  trade, 
54,  55,  60,  63,  65,  66,  68; 
ready  to  nullify,  70;  nullifica 


tion,  71,  72;  Jackson's  Proc 
lamation  and  Force  Bill,  73; 
repeal  of  nullification,  75,  77, 
82;  internal  improvements 
and  debt,  98;  bank  laws,  106; 
for  Van  Buren,  111;  "slavery 
a  blessing,"  119;  Calhoun  and, 
119;  loses  representatives, 
121,  128,  131,  140,  141;  Pres 
byterians,  143;  and  Wilmot 
Proviso,  171;  California  and 
slavery,  175;  secession  of,  269, 
270;  Union  area,  278,  313; 
Sherman  and,  325. 

Southwest,  radical,  23;  newly 
rich,  31;  and  nullification,  72; 
river  commerce,  90;  cotton 
expansion,  90;  growth,  121; 
and  old  South,  140. 

Sparks,  Rev.  Jared,  73. 

Specie  Circular,  92;  effect  on 
business,  102;  demand  for  re 
peal,  102,  103. 

Squatter  sovereignty,  started 
by  Cass,  171. 

Stanton,  Edwin  M.,  Secretary 
of  War,  299;  arbitrary  arrests, 
304. 

Steamers,  on  Great  Lakes,  35; 
on  the  Mississippi,  35. 

Stephens,  Alexander  H.,  for 
Taylor,  171;  out  of  favor,  175; 
blaming  anti-slavery,  176; 
defends  Douglas,  240;  Demo 
crat,  243;  Vice-President  of 
Confederacy,  271;  reelected, 
286;  for  reunion,  309;  would 
impeach  Davis,  323,  324, 
325. 

Stevens,  Thaddeus,  supports 
Lincoln,  322. 

Story,  Joseph,  15,  252. 

Suffrage,  3;  in  North  Carolina, 
9;  in  Virginia,  10;  in  New 
York,  14;  in  Connecticut,  14; 
in  Massachusetts,  15;  in 
Rhode  Island,  15. 

Sugar,  12,  132,  194. 


INDEX 


xxi 


Sully,  portrait  painter,  54. 

Sumner,  Charles,  for  constitu 
tional  abolition,  168;  hostile 
to  Webster,  179,  184,  215; 
against  Nebraska  Bill,  240, 
241,  242;  "  Crime-of-Kansas  " 
speech,  245;  assaulted  by 
Brooks,  245,  253,  263;  un 
compromising,  273;  for  im 
mediate  emancipation,  301; 
denounces  Lincoln,  316,  320; 
supports  Lincoln,  332. 

Sumter,  Fort,  270,  272,  273; 
bombardment  of,  united 
North,  283. 

Supreme  Court,  of  United 
States,  proposal  to  limit 
powers,  16,  50,  51,  55;  of 
Georgia,  Jackson  and,  72; 
Cherokee  Nation  against 
Georgia,  88;  changed,  99; 
Dred  Scott  decision,  247. 

Surplus.    See  Revenue. 

Taney,  Roger  B.,  Attorney- 
General,  65;  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  79. 

Tariff,  5,  6,  7,  44,  51,  53,  55,  65, 
66,  68,  69;  Jackson  and,  59; 
and  South  Carolina,  60,  62; 
nullification,  71;  Verplanck 
Bill,  73;  compromise  of  1833, 
74,  77;  and  Whigs,  110,  112, 
173;  and  Clay,  114;  law  of 
1842,  117,  130;  of  1846,  150, 
151;  low,  1850,  60,  205,  268; 
and  Confederacy,  271. 

Taylor,  Zachary  sent  across 
Nueces  River,  148;  ordered 
to  the  Rio  Grande,  154;  into 
Mexico,  154;  Monterey,  154; 
suggested  for  Presidency,  155; 
Buena  Vista,  155;  nominated 
for  President,  171;  slave 
owner,  171;  in  Presidential 
campaign,  172;  courted  by 
North  and  South,  174,  175; 
and  California,  176;  defies 


South,  176;  and  Clay,  176; 
beaten,  180;  death,  180. 

Tennessee,  and  Clay,  21,  22,  32, 
40;  and  nullification,  72,  93; 
"slavery  a  blessing,"  119, 121, 
141;  Presbyterians  in,  143, 
182;  and  Nebraska  Bill,  238, 
245;  secession  of,  275;  Union 
areas,  279,  293,  311,  313. 

Tennessee  River,  immigration 
to,  13,  161;  Grant  on,  293. 

Texas,  16;  American  occupa 
tion,  25;  desired  by  West,  24; 
and  Van  Buren,  89,  105,  106; 
applies  for  annexation,  104, 
120;  independent,  121,  125, 
126;  and  England,  126,  127; 
Walker  letter,  129,  130,  131, 
132,  135;  treaty  of  annexation 
rejected  by  Senate,  147;  and 
election  of  1845, 147;  annexed, 
147;  disputed  boundary,  148, 
152;  Slidell's  mission,  153; 
secession  over,  167;  New 
Mexican  boundary,  176;  and 
Pacific  Railroad,  233;  seces 
sion  of,  275. 

Thompson,  Jacob,  Confederate 
agent  Canada,  323. 

Thompson,  William  Tappen, 
227. 

Timrod,  Henry,  227. 

Tobacco,  12,  35,  66,  75,  132, 
186;  staple,  194. 

Toombs,  Robert,  1 75 ;  and  Kan 
sas  question,  244. 

Topeka  Constitution,  of  Kansas, 
250. 

Transcendental  Club,  52. 

Transcendentalists,  226. 

Treasury  of  United  States,  full, 
186,  292. 

Treasury  notes,  issued  in  1877, 
103. 

Trist,  Nicholas,  envoy  to  Mexi 
co,  156,  157. 

Trumbull,  Lyman,  255. 

Tyler,   John,   against  Jackson, 


XX11 


INDEX 


93;  for  Vice-President,  110; 
elected.  111;  succeeds  Harri 
son,  115;  and  Clay,  115;  ve 
toes  Bank  bills,  116;  Cabinet 
resigns,  116,  121;  Texas  and 
Oregon,  125;  Texas  treaty, 
130,  131,  147,  168. 

Tucker,  George,  historian,  228. 

Twain,  Mark,  227. 

Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  184. 

Union  party,  Bell  and  Everett, 
261;  for  conciliation,  270. 

Unitarians,  218;  and  abolition, 
221. 

University,  of  Indiana,  Presby 
terian,  223;  of  Michigan, 
Methodist  Chaplain,  223;  of 
North  Carolina,  Presbyter 
ian,  223;  of  South  Carolina, 
143;  of  Virginia,  143;  chap 
lain  at,  223. 

Upshur,  Abel  P.,  Secretary  of 
State,  126;  and  Texas,  127; 
death,  127,  147. 

Utah,  in  Compromise  of  1850, 
176. 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  "boss"  of 
New  York,  14;  in  Senate,  16, 
17,  18,  58;  in  Jackson's  favor, 
62,  63;  Calhoun  rival,  64,  65; 
Minister  to  England,  68;  for 
Vice-President,  68;  and  Jack 
son,  73,  83,  89;  for  President, 
92;  conservative,  94;  spoils 
system,  96;  difficulties,  97, 
100;  and  panic  of  1837,  102; 
and  Independent  Treasury, 
103;  and  Texas,  104,  105,  107, 
121,  127,  167;  and  opposition, 
108;  and  Democrats,  109; 
blamed  for  panic,  110;  and 
campaign  of  1840,  111,  114, 
]20;  and  Walker,  129;  not  re- 
nominated,  130,  147;  against 
Cass,  172;  Free-Soil  candi 
date,  173. 


Vance,  Zebulon  B.,  opposed  to 
Davis,  312. 

Vanderbilt,  Commodore,  steam 
boat  and  railroad  lines,  192. 

Vermont,  for  Scott,  182. 

Verplanck  Tariff  Bill,  Jackson's 
measure,  73. 

Vicksburg,  293. 

Virginia,  3,  7,  10,  11,  13,  14;  for 
Jackson,  18,  23,  28,  30;  de 
pression,  39;  and  nullification, 
46,  50,  55,  67,  72;  embassy 
from,  to  South  Carolina,  75; 
internal  improvements  and 
debt,  98;  for  Van  Buren,  111; 
banks,  115,  117;  loses  repre 
sentative,  121 ;  Van  Buren 
and  Texas,  128,  132,  133,  140, 
143,  149;  and  slavery,  161, 
162;  and  Compromise  of 
1850,  178,  195;  convicts,  in 
1860, 213;  springs,  214;  Know- 
Nothing  fight,  242;  John 
Brown  raid,  258,  264;  calls 
peace  conference,  272;  seces 
sion  of,  275;  Union  areas,  279; 
western  revolt  and  statehood, 
279;  resistance  to  conscript 
laws,  311;  opposition  party, 
312,  323. 

Wade,  Benjamin  F.,  242, 253, 299. 

Walker,  Robert  J.,  Senator,  128; 
Texas  and  Oregon  letter,  129; 
Baltimore  Convention,  129, 
140,  147;  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  147;  Independent 
Treasury,  150;  Tariff  of  1846, 
150, 151 ;  for  annexing  Mexico, 
157,  235;  Governor  of  Kan 
sas,  249;  clash  with  Van 
Buren,  249;  financial  agent  of 
United  States  in  Europe,  315. 

Walker,  William,  198,  235. 

War  of  1812,  84;  debt  paid,  99; 
and  New  England,  268. 

Washington,  D.C.,  and  Bank, 
79,  209. 


INDEX 


xxni 


Washington  Territory,  199. 

Webster,  Daniel,  15/17,  30,  37, 
54,  55;  debate  with  Hayne, 
61,  63,  66,  69,  70,  73,  74,  79, 
80,  82,  84,  91,  93,  96,  107, 
108,  110;  and  Clay,  117;  Ash- 
burton  Treaty,  123,  125; 
mission  to  England,  126;  re 
signs  as  Secretary  of  State, 
126;  and  campaign  of  1844, 
131;  and  Oregon,  149,  150, 
152;  and  "all  of  Mexico," 
158;  snubbed,  171,  172,  173; 
and  Compromise  of  1850,  176, 
179;  "Seventh-of-March" 
speech,  179;  attacked,  180; 
Secretary  of  State,  180,  181; 
death,  181,  268. 

Weed,  Thurlow,  for  Taylor,  and 
Southern  alliance,  171,  179, 
243,  255;  conciliatory,  269, 
271. 

Went  worth,  John,  Republican 
leader,  255. 

West,  2,  3;  radical,  4;  against 
Adams,  17;  and  Jackson,  18, 
21,  23;  alliance  with  South, 
19,  24,  25,  27,  28,  29,  30,  31, 
32,  36,  109,  131,  159;  reli 
gious  life,  33;  schools  and  col 
leges,  34,  35;  and  East,  39,  40, 
43,  46;  banks  and  circulation, 
45;  and  courts,  51,  55,  58,  59; 
and  public  lands,  59,  62;  and 
Bank,  60,  61,  63,  66,  67;  Bank 
and  Jackson,  69,  70,  74; 
market  for  East,  75,  80;  re 
moval  of  Indians,  87;  popu 
lation,  89,  90;  speculation  in, 

91,  92;  canals  and  railroads, 

92,  93,  97;  against  Van  Buren, 

93,  96,  110;  state  debts,  98, 
106;    Specie    Circular,     101, 
108;  for  Harrison,  111,  112; 
and  Calhoun,  120;  Texas  and 
Oregon,    122;    Webster-Ash- 
burton  Treaty,  124;  Walker 
letter,  129;  and  Mexican  War, 


160;  for  Cass,  172;  railroad 
building,  189,  201,  205,  213; 
school  lands,  223;  threats  of 
secession,  268;  love  of  Union, 
289;  against  emancipation, 
304. 

West  Indies,  trade  with  British, 
84. 

West  Virginia,  organized  and 
admitted,  279;  lost  to  South, 
313. 

Whigs,  campaign  of  1836,  93; 
panic  of  1837,  102,  108,  109; 
in  1840,  110;  divided,  114; 
and  Tyler,  115;  and  Texas, 
128,  147;  Independent  Treas 
ury,  151 ;  Taylor  for  President, 
155,  157;  and  Wilmot  Pro 
viso,  170;  Convention  of 
1848,  171,  173;  Southern  and 
Taylor,  174;  Southern,  for 
Union,  178;  secure  Compro 
mise  of  1850,  181;  Northwest 
ern,  join  Republicans,  241; 
Eastern,  and  Know-Noth 
ings,  242,  243,  264. 

White,  Hugh  Lawson,  revolt 
against  Jackson,  93;  candi 
date  for  President,  93. 

Whitney,  Asa,  and  Pacific  Rail 
road,  204,  233. 

Whitney,  Eli,  cotton  gin,  199. 

Whittier,  John  G.,  lines  on  Web 
ster,  180,  226. 

Wilmot,  David,  and  Wilmot 
Proviso,  170. 

Wilmot  Proviso,  and  North 
west,  153;  in  Congress,  170. 

Wirt,  William,  17,  53;  and  anti- 
Masonic  party,  67,  70. 

Wisconsin,  87;  settlement,  89, 
90,  105,  106;  made  State,  198; 
Indians  removed,  199,  205; 
Republican  party  in,  241 ;  nul 
lifies  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  252; 
Democratic,  302. 

Wise,  Henry  A.,  67;  supports 
Tyler,116, 121;  defeats  Know- 


XXIV 


INDEX 


Nothings,  243,  253;  and  John 

Brown  raid,  258. 
Women,  position  of,  on  frontier, 

32;  in  factories,  210;  life  on 

farm,  212. 

Woolens  Bill  of  1827,  6. 
Worcester  Convention  of  1857, 

253 
Wright,  Silas,  82,  105,  108. 


Yale  College,  influence,  222. 

Yancey,  William  L.,  Oregon  and 
Texas,  132;  expansionist,  150; 
and  crisis  of  1850,  176;  retire 
ment  in  1850,  181;  and  public 
education,  223,  261;  for  seces 
sion,  264;  opposed  to  Davis, 
312;  death,  312. 

Yucatan,  United  States  and,  157. 


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